The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-03-26

<1H
A. YOUNG MAN AND GIRL.
laborious pilgrimage around its staring
gilt frame.
and merriment in this little hovel, queer
as it looked. The corpulent brass sam
over looked down upon a brown rye
loaf as big as footstool and an enor-
nous bowl of buckwheat porridge, sig
nificantly called ''postnaya kasha" fast
ing porridge), while a perfect mount
ain of sugared Easter cakes"-which
our hosts sturdy, sunbrowned, red
kerchiefed wife had spent the whole
day in baking-rose around the dainty
of the season, pyramidal mass of
thick pasty dough, spotted with a
kind of smallpox of currants and raisins,
which is to Russian Easter what the
traditional plum pudding is to an En-
glish Christmas.
Just as all was ready for our meal in
came the postmasters pretty daughter in
all the splendor of her holiday clothes
embroidered blue jacket and crimson
skirt, striped stockings, and string of
colored beads round her neck. Her late
appearance was fully explained by the
huge basket of Easter eggs, gay with all
the hues of the rainbow, which she car
RED in her hand.
Behind Miss Praskovia came another
girl about her own age, who was pre-
sented to me as her foster sister, and
who seemed to be treated with great re-
spect by the whole family, being (as I
afterward learned) the only daughter Of
prosperous corn dealer in the town,
who was quite capitalist in the eyes Of
these simple folks. Her face impressed
me only by its extreme beauty, but the
moment heard her voice I recognized
the girl whose talk with her lover I had
overheard half an hour before.
But amid all the merriment of our gay
party Maria Oisipovna MARY, daughter
of Joseph) was strangely sad and silent,
and her sadness was fully explained
when she at length said pensively:
"Ah! if only my poor brother were
here among us, how happy we should
bel Perhaps he's not dead after all; it
may have been only report. And if he
ever did come back, surely my father
couldn't be so cruel as to drive him out
again"
The honest postmaster answered only
with a shrug of his broad shoulders (be-
ing evidently skeptical of any kind deed
on the part of her father, Oisip MSsloff,
who htd the name of being the most
hard listed and hard hearted old fellow
in the whole district), and limited to us
that we must not sit toolong over our
supper, as we would have to be at the
church in good time for the opening of
the night service.
An hour later we were in the church,
which was filled to overfowing, even
the romantic old graybeards and totter-
ing grandams of the community being
visible amid the crowd by scores, proba-
bly, for the first time since the previous
Easter. The whole scene was certainly
strange contrast to my last Easter
service in Russia, which had been cele-
brated not in an obscure provincial
church, but in the great Isaac cathedral
at st. Petersburg. In a moment I re-
called the whole ceremonial-t massed
thousands of assembled worshipers amid
the vast granite columns of the splendid
cathedral; the plaintive hymn dying
away in cadence of mournful sweetness
among the mighty arches overhead; the
gorgeous robes and long silky hair of the
priests in the center, grouped around the
coffin that typifed the death and burial
of our Lord; the tone of wondering dis
may in which the chief priest exclaimed
''He is not herer' as he turned away and
left the church with his comrades, as il
to seek the sacred body elsewhere-tht
sudden and triumphant return of the
procession through the opposite gate
with heads uplifted and banners dis
played and a joyous shout of ''Christ il
risen," and then the sea of light tina
surged up through the shadowy throue
as thousands Of tapers were lighted a
once, while the choir pealed forth tht
grand resurrection anthem, and on ever,
side was heard the greeting which wa
echoing at that instant throughout tn
| length and breadth of Russia, s'Christ j
| risen! He is risen, indeedv'
But here there were no pomp an,
| splendor, no bronzed gates or marbl
cornices or pillars of polished granite
All was rude and simple; plain timber
plain stone, and the only crnamen
| worth naming was a massive silver cru
ci6x above the altar, purchased with tn
| offerings of the pious Cossacks of 181
out of the spoils won by them from tn
retreating armies of Napoleon.
| Just at that moment, however, mad
a discovery which put everything els
out of my head at once. In the fore
most rank of the crowd around the plat
form on which lay the symbolical coffi
stood directly opposite to the spot wher
| I was placed man who seemed anxiou
to avoid observation, for the lower paI
| of his face was hidden by the collar c
his long gray coat, and the upper paI
by the cap which he carefully held bt
| fore it; but a sudden movement of th
throng exposed his face for one instant
and it was that of Masha's soldier lovel
young Sergt. Dmitri Rudenko!
The look of fierce and hungry expects
1 tlCil ILLS iIOu IlStA ctCAh 6Ady CyS
made me shudder, for saw by it tha
his victim was still concealed in th
church, and that he was ready to pounc
upon him as soon as the fit moment al
rived; and the sudden starting up {
this deadly pertinacity, this sleeples
ambush of death amid all the peace an
brightness and JOY of the nations gres
day of gladness, had an indescribabl
CHASTITY effect.
| Meanwhile the ceremony proceede
and all went on as usual till the hig
priest and his acolytes mounted the pla
form, and the former, raising the III
fastened lid of the coffin and letting
fall again, uttered in his deep voicA I'll
i Continued on The Third Page.