Litchfield enquirer., 1878-03-14

b4ey acCually recelVeQ ana Glat, MoreOVcT, III wholesale transaction she supplied pots of quality inferior to the samples. These misdo- ings she confessed once month or so, with promises of amendment; but she and Plani- Witz conducted yet more serious business in that they smuggled goods into Gallicia and out of it by means of a double-keeled barge, which carried their pots down the Vistula from Dolw to Cracow and back.
 Now this double-keeled barge had been the subject of much spiritual wrangling between Macha Planiwitz and me.
 A buxom, blue-eyed, and good-humored mother of children, Macha had great reverence for the saints, but was withal too fond ot mon ey, 80 that when she first told me of the barge ] found her ready to argue that 1t was no sin in her and her husband, who were Christians, to defraud the Russians, who were schismat- 4ic8; the less SO, as the schismatic officials of the cnstom-house were wont to abet the frauds in consideration of being bribed. had to correct these notions, and, with sigh, Macha promised that the barge should be suppressed. But eighteen months later, her eldest boy, Pe- ter, being in danger of death by measles, she came to me in great trouble, attributing this trial to the double-keeled barge, which had not been suppressed after all, notwithstanding a variety of tibs she had told me on her knees as to it's having been broken up for fire-wood.
 
 ing his mother to VOW more honestly for the future, and when the boy had recovered, she swore by his precious head that the barge should no more be used. But alas for the de- ceatfulness of women! When, at the end of two years more, Macha's youngest little girl was seized with the whoOping- cough, she had to avow with many tears that, although the original barge had no more been used two oth- CT and larger ones had been bought, owing to the extension which Stanislas Paniwitzs af- fairs were taking. Little Mary was cured of her whooping cough, and her mother pretend ed to abjure barges forever; but was not at all sure but that she had found means of evad- ing the spirit of a VOW, which maybe she had fulfilled in the letter,
 So as Macha was kneelng and telling me of some profitable mistakes she had been making in her addition sums, thought of the double keeled barge, and reflected how convenient a vehicle it would have been for smuggling Cas- imir Barinski into Gallicia. The difficulty was to extract an avowal form Macha that she still smuggled, for her husband and children were all in good health at that moment.
 '.Macha,'' said suddenly, ''you must tell me about the cargo of tea, leather. and furs, you sent off to Cracow last week"
 ''As live, father, there wasn't pound of tea in it," she replied in fiutter.
 
 though I proceeded sternly, though l was only going by guess-work. 'What do you mean by trying to deceive the saints? Do you think they don't prompt me to the questions l ought to put you, and keep an open eye on your games besides" s''AIl the Jews in the carrying trade snug gle, and the saints don't hinder them, ," said Macha dismally. ''It's very hard that we Christians shouldn't be allowed to pick up a little of the money which would else go into their pockets"
 "Wat till the day of judgment" said I. ''You'll see what faces the Jews will pull when they are ordered downstairs, whilst all the good Christians march off to the right. Not that you'll ever march off to the right though, Macha, for you've told me many lie about those double-keeled barges."
 'sFather, if the saints have told you that we've single ble-keeled barge ahoat, they've lost the use of their eyes," affirmed Macha, with rather ironical earnestness.
 1 was somewhat dlsconcerted, but thought it good to feign anger. ''Out upon you for mocking at the saints now!' said l. ''ls it because poor saint has been dead thousand years and more, that he's to be scoffed at for not knowing the names of the new-fangled craft that ply. on the rivers? suppose you won't tell me that your skins float up stream to Cracow by themselves, with the incantation of some Lithuanian Water-witch to speed them? ?"
 'sGod forbid" exclaimed Macha, and I am sure she signed herself pieusly.
 ''Well, then, it's the devil who carries them in his phantom ship, manned by heretics who have died by their own hand? If you don't want me to believe that there's some evil mys- tery in all this, Macha, you'll let me know in what sort of boat all those skins are hidden. |"
 ''Its steam-launch," murmured Macha, terrified.
 The secret was out at last, and could hear poor Macha behind the grating beginning to >whmper. 1 suspect she was already in con ference with the fiend as to how she should elude any new VOW 1 might impose upon her in respect of the vessel from which her hus- band derived SO much more money than from his pots; so she must have felt surprised when I simply questioned her as to the facilities which the customhouse officials allowed Plani witz for his smuggling. She hastened to say, in self-excuse, that they allowed so many that a saint himself would have been tempted into the contraband trade. They never over hauled the cargo butpretended to believe that pots were the only merchandise on board, and it was not ten days since Planiwitz had pre- sented the chief inspector with twenty pounds of Turkish tobacco and ten sacks of Mocha 
 journey ought to mention that Planiwitz, though true-hearted Pole, was by birth a Gaiician, and had not settled in Dolw till af- ter the rebellion, so that the authorities had no reason to treat him with the mistrust shown to Poles indigenous to the Russian Districts. Among these last Chat is among the Christ ians) trade was hampered with so many re- strictions that few cared to embark in it.
 All wanted to know of Macha was wheth- CT, in the event of Casimir Barinski being hid den on board the launch, there was any dan ger of the inspectors detecting him, and hav- ing ascertained there was none, I proceeded to inform my penitent, in a rather circumlocuto- " way, what l wanted her to do. She was a good woman, who I knew would willingly render me service and yet such awe attach es among the people to the words police and Siberian exile that doubted how my commu- nication would affect her. But she received it better than 1 thought, and better, 1 am sure, than her husband would have done, for wo- men have according to my experience, more courage than men.
 'sYou want us to carry patriot out of the country. see no difficulty" said she, in a whisper; '.is it Count Bariniski, whom the pa pers say has been pardoned?"
 ''The same and 1 charge you, on your soul, Macha, not to confide his plan to any man, save your husband, and the mate of your launch for you would jeopardize his life. How many men compose the crew of the launch ?"
 ''Two-one is an Austrian, the other s Greek, and neither like the Russians will talk to my husband, and bring you Rnswel tomorrow at this hour" sAnd tell him the count wants to start as soon as possible said I, pleased with her do | cility. 'He was to have got married before starting, but his bride can join him abroad, anG they will be married more comfortably where l Russian faces are scarce"
 ] Macha reflected moment, and then the l jade thought she would drive bargain witt saints.
 ''We take tea and skins on board as ballast, said she; twill it be sin if we do so on this journey with the count, father p
 Nobody asks you what you gre going te take, ," muttered l.
 T should like to have my conscience clear, said she, bit slyly. May have absolutior for past smuggling ?"
 ''Yes, I absolve thee, for thou art good wo man, said l, and am glad the grating wal there to prevent my seeing her smile, as sh' must have done, when so readily gave her { clean bill for all her husbands sins against tht l