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"I am curious to taste that liquor which you call kwas," said

A loud ring from above was heard, as if to enforce the order. "Sei tshas! sei tshas! directly, directly!" called out Vatka; but he nevertheless finished his kwas, and wiped his mouth before he went to Matwei the butler to procure the silver salver on which Ivan the footman would carry the tumbler of water which Paul the valet had been ordered to bring.

Imagine yourself in a wild, rolling country covered here and there with kwas along the sides of the nullahs." I did so. "Well," continued Yarner, "we were sitting in our tent one hot night too hot to sleep when all at once we heard, not ten feet in front of us, the most terrific roar that ever came from the throat of a lion."

"And the ingredients?" said I, for I always delighted to pick up any scrap of information interesting to a rat. "There are almost as many ways of making shtshee as of cooking potatoes. I have seen six or seven cabbages chopped up small, half a pound of butter, a handful of salt, and two pounds of minced mutton added, the whole mixed up with a can or two of kwas.

"Mind you don't tumble in, old fellow!" cried Whiskerandos, "and be drowned in kwas as I have heard that a duke once was drowned in wine." "And what may this kwas be made of?" inquired

"I wonder that kwas is not made in England," observed

"Oh that I had been content with my kwas and my shtshee! Oh that I had never left the kitchen! that I had never ventured forth with a reckless companion, who would, I believe, play at hide and seek with a cat, or nibble at the pocket of a rat-catcher!"

Farewell kwas and shtshee, and all the luxuries for too brief a time enjoyed! Where are we going now, where!" Such were the complaints which I was wont to pour out during the long tedious voyage which succeeded.

"That's in keeping of Matwei the buffetshik," observed the table-decker. "And where is Matwei to be found?" "Here you, Vatka," pursued the valet, turning to another attendant, who was busy over his basin of kwas, "go you to Matwei and tell him that we want a silver salver on which to carry a tumbler, for my lady's fainting up stairs, and my lord is calling for water."

"I should not be surprised if there were." Whiskerandos remained for a minute in silence, then said, "I want to compare English beer with Russian kwas." "You are not going into the field!" I cried in alarm. "I am going, why, there is nothing to fear; there is not a reaper near, and if there were, he would need to be a sharp fellow who could catch a rat in an open field!"