shingles or boards from other regions. Cover the balance with thatch
of long grass, and erect chimneys that just peer above the ridge
poles. Scatter these buildings on a hillside next the water; arrange
three-fourths of them in a single street, and leave the rest to drop
wherever they like. Of course those in the higgledy-piggledy position
must be of the poorest class, but you can make a few exceptions.
Whitewash the inner walls of half the buildings, and use paper or
cloth to hide the nakedness of the other half.

This will make a fair counterfeit of Petropavlovsk. Inside each house
place a brick stove or oven, four or five feet square and six feet
high. Locate this stove to present a side to each of two or three
rooms. In each side make an aperture two inches square that can be
opened or closed at will. The amount of heat to warm the rooms is
regulated by means of the apertures.

Furnish the houses with plain chairs, tables, and an occasional but
rare piano. Make the doors very low and the entries narrow. Put a
picture of a saint in the principal room of every house, and adorn the
walls with a few engravings. Make a garden near each house, and let a
few miscellaneous gardens cling to the hillside and strive to climb
it. Don't forget to build a church, or you will fail to represent a
Russian town.

Petropavlovsk has no vehicle of any kind except a single hand cart.
Consequently the street is not gashed with wheel ruts.

We were invited to 'assist' at a wedding that happened in the evening
after our arrival. The ceremony was to begin at five o'clock, and was
a double affair, two sisters being the brides. A Russian wedding