about among the manufacturers of the district persuading them to take
adequate measures to combat the cholera. Owing to his efforts the whole
section containing twenty-five villages and hamlets was covered with a
network of the necessary institutions. For several months Chekhov scarcely
got out of his chaise. During that time he had to drive all over his
section, receive patients at home, and do his literary work. He returned
home shattered and exhausted, but always behaved as though he were doing
something trivial; he cracked little jokes and made everyone laugh as
before, and carried on conversations with his dachshund, Quinine, about her
supposed sufferings.

By early autumn the place had become unrecognizable. The outhouses had been
rebuilt, unnecessary fences had been removed, rose-trees had been planted,
a flower-bed had been laid out; in the fields before the gates Chekhov was
planning to dig a big new pond. With what interest he watched each day the
progress of the work upon it! He planted trees round it and dropped into it
tiny carp and perch which he brought with him in a jar from Moscow. The
pond became later on more like an ichthyological station than a pond, as
there was no kind of fish in Russia, except the pike, of which Chekhov had
not representatives in this pond. He liked sitting on the dam on its bank
and watching with ecstasy shoals of little fish coming suddenly to the
surface and then hiding in its depths. An excellent well had been dug in
Melihovo before this. Chekhov had been very anxious that it should be in
Little Russian style with a crane. But the position did not allow of this,
and it was made with a big wheel painted yellow like the wells at Russian
railway stations. The question where to dig this well and whether the water
in it would be good greatly interested Chekhov. He wanted exact information
and a theory based on good grounds, seeing that nine-tenths of Russia uses
water out of wells, and has done so since time immemorial; but whenever he
questioned the well-sinkers who came to him, he received the same vague