glance at the passengers of the tarantass. No luggage!--
and had there been, where in the world could he have stowed it?
Rather shabby in appearance too. He looked contemptuous.

"Crows," said he, without caring whether he was overheard or not;
"crows, at six copecks a verst!"

"No, eagles!" said Michael, who understood the iemschik's slang perfectly;
"eagles, do you hear, at nine copecks a verst, and a tip besides."

He was answered by a merry crack of the whip.

In the language of the Russian postillions the "crow" is the stingy
or poor traveler, who at the post-houses only pays two or three
copecks a verst for the horses. The "eagle" is the traveler
who does not mind expense, to say nothing of liberal tips.
Therefore the crow could not claim to fly as rapidly as
the imperial bird.

Nadia and Michael immediately took their places in the tarantass.
A small store of provisions was put in the box, in case at any time they
were delayed in reaching the post-houses, which are very comfortably
provided under direction of the State. The hood was pulled up,
as it was insupport-ably hot, and at twelve o'clock the tarantass
left Perm in a cloud of dust.

The way in which the iemschik kept up the pace of his team would
have certainly astonished travelers who, being neither Russians
nor Siberians, were not accustomed to this sort of thing.
The leader, rather larger than the others, kept to a steady