would give a sweet and guilty smile and go on with his work. Chekhov was in
constant anxiety about the old man's health, as he was very fond of cakes
and pastry, and Chekhov's mother used to regale him on them to such an
extent that Anton was constantly having to give him medicine. Afterwards
Suvorin, the editor of _Novoye Vremya_, came to stay. Chekhov and he used
to paddle in a canoe, hollowed out of a tree, to an old mill, where they
would spend hours fishing and talking about literature.

Both the grandsons of serfs, both cultivated and talented men, they were
greatly attracted by each other. Their friendship lasted for several years,
and on account of Suvorin's reactionary opinions, exposed Chekhov to a
great deal of criticism in Russia. Chekhov's feelings for Suvorin began to
change at the time of the Dreyfus case, but he never broke entirely with
him. Suvorin's feelings for Chekhov remained unchanged.

In the spring of 1889 his brother Nikolay, the artist, fell ill with
consumption, and his illness occupied Anton entirely, and completely
prevented his working. That summer Nikolay died, and it was under the
influence of this, his first great sorrow, that Chekhov wrote "A Dreary
Story." For several months after the death of his brother he was extremely
restless and depressed.

In 1890 his younger brother Mihail was taking his degree in law at Moscow,
and studying treatises on the management of prisons. Chekhov got hold of
them, became intensely interested in prisons, and resolved to visit the
penal settlement of Sahalin. He made up his mind to go to the Far East so
unexpectedly that it was difficult for his family to believe that he was in
earnest.

He was afraid that after Kennan's revelations about the penal system in