VOITSKI. [Sarcastically] Oh, extremely!

HELENA. You are still young, not over thirty-six or seven, I
should say, and I suspect that the woods do not interest you as
much as you say they do. I should think you would find them
monotonous.

SONIA. No, the work is thrilling. Dr. Astroff watches over the
old woods and sets out new plantations every year, and he has
already received a diploma and a bronze medal. If you will listen
to what he can tell you, you will agree with him entirely. He
says that forests are the ornaments of the earth, that they teach
mankind to understand beauty and attune his mind to lofty
sentiments. Forests temper a stern climate, and in countries
where the climate is milder, less strength is wasted in the
battle with nature, and the people are kind and gentle. The
inhabitants of such countries are handsome, tractable, sensitive,
graceful in speech and gesture. Their philosophy is joyous, art
and science blossom among them, their treatment of women is full
of exquisite nobility---

VOITSKI. [Laughing] Bravo! Bravo! All that is very pretty, but it
is also unconvincing. So, my friend [To ASTROFF] you must let me
go on burning firewood in my stoves and building my sheds of
planks.

ASTROFF. You can burn peat in your stoves and build your sheds of
stone. Oh, I don't object, of course, to cutting wood from
necessity, but why destroy the forests? The woods of Russia are