My dear friend, haven't you in your library Tagantsev's "Criminal Law"?
If you have, couldn't you send it me? I would buy it, but I am now "a
poor relation"--a beggar and as poor as Sidor's goat. Would you telephone
to your shop, too, to send me, on account of favours to come, two books:
"The Laws relating to Exiles," and "The Laws relating to Persons under
Police Control." Don't imagine that I want to become a procurator; I
want these works for my Sahalin book. I am going to direct my attack
chiefly against life sentences, in which I see the root of all the
evils; and against the laws dealing with exiles, which are fearfully out
of date and contradictory.




TO L. S. MIZINOV.

ALEXIN,
May 17, 1891.


Golden, mother-of-pearl, and _fil d'Ecosse_ Lika! The mongoose ran away the
day before yesterday, and will never come back again. It is dead. That is
the first thing.

The second thing is, that we are moving our residence to the upper storey
of the house of B.K.--the man who gave you milk to drink and forgot to give
you strawberries. We will let you know the day we move in due time. Come to
smell the flowers, to walk, to fish, and to blubber. Ah, lovely Lika! When
you bedewed my right shoulder with your tears (I have taken out the spots