my brain, and the result is something light, ethereal, like lacework.

On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays I write my Sahalin book, on the other
days, except Sunday, my novel, and on Sundays, short stories. I work with
zest. The weather has been superb every day; the site of our summer villa
is dry and healthy. There is a lot of woodland. There are a lot of fish and
crayfish in the Oka. I see the trains and the steamers. Altogether if it
were not for being somewhat cramped I should be very very much pleased with
it.

* * * * *

I don't intend to get married. I should like to be a little bald old man
sitting at a big table in a fine study....




ALEXIN,
May 13, 1891.


I am going to write you a Christmas story--that's certain. Two, indeed, if
you like. I sit and write and write ...; at last I have set to work. I am
only sorry that my cursed teeth are aching and my stomach is out of order.

I am a dilatory but productive author. By the time I am forty I shall have
hundreds of volumes, so that I can open a bookshop with nothing but my own
works. To have a lot of books and to have nothing else is a horrible
disgrace.