Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 2.djvu/231

Rh mines of Kará, separated forever from her only child, and yet receiving from the latter such letters as this, you will understand, perhaps, how she was, at last, driven insane. To what extent the little girl Hallie realized the situation of her mother sufficiently appears from the naïve, childish letter that she wrote her. It is as follows:

I wish you could see how pleasant the weather is here. I walk out every day, all along the bank of the river, and I enjoy it so much! You ask me to tell you about the other children. Well, first, there is Sásha. He is rather fat and good-looking, and he has nice eyes; but I think he is spoiled by petting. Then there is Dúnia. She is not very pretty, but she is a nice girl and I like her very much. The baby is only a year old. He creeps all over the floor; but he can walk holding on to somebody's hand, and he can say 'Papa,' 'Mama,' and 'Niánya' [nurse). I love him most of all.

I am getting along in my studies pretty well. In history I am 5, grammar 5, German 4, and French 5; but, my dear mother, I must give you some sad news. In arithmetic I could n't do the sum that was given me, and so was marked 3, and did n't get the reward, which I hoped so to get because I knew how it would please aunt and you.

My dear mother, it is terrible to think how far you are from me — but how glad I am that you love me so. When I grow up and have children I will love them as you love me, and as I love you. My dearest little mother, my darling, my soul, I love you so much!

Imagine Madam Kavaléfskaya in penal servitude at the mines, five thousand miles from her home, in shaken health, with no hope of ever returning to European Russia, with little hope even of living out her thirteen-year sentence, and in receipt of such a letter as this from her only child! I have often pictured to myself the contrast between what the child thought was "sad news" — that she could not do her sum in arithmetic — and the awful tragedy in the life of the mother.

In 1881, soon after the return of the free command to prison, Madam Kavaléfskaya went insane, shrieked