himself in Moscow. He spent days at a time in the Art Theatre, producing
his "Cherry Orchard," and incidentally supervising the setting and
performance of the plays of other authors. He gave advice and criticized,
was excited and enthusiastic.

On the 17th of January, 1904, "The Cherry Orchard" was produced for the
first time. The first performance was the occasion of the celebration of
the twenty-fifth anniversary of Chekhov's literary activity. A great number
of addresses were read and speeches were made. Chekhov was many times
called before the curtain, and this expression of universal sympathy
exhausted him to such a degree that the very day after the performance he
began to think with relief of going back to Yalta, where he spent the
following spring.

His health was completely shattered, and everyone who saw him secretly
thought the end was not far off; but the nearer Chekhov was to the end, the
less he seemed to realize it. Ill as he was, at the beginning of May he set
off for Moscow. He was terribly ill all the way on the journey, and on
arrival took to his bed at once. He was laid up till June.

On the 3rd of June he set off with his wife for a cure abroad to the Black
Forest, and settled in a little spa called Badenweiler. He was dying,
although he wrote to everyone that he had almost recovered, and that health
was coming back to him not by ounces but by hundredweights. He was dying,
but he spent the time dreaming of going to the Italian lakes and returning
to Yalta by sea from Trieste, and was already making inquiries about the
steamers and the times they stopped at Odessa.

He died on the 2nd of July.