My chief amusement was an occasional walk in the fields with Karl Karl'itch; and even this mild form of dissipation could not always be obtained, for as soon as rain had fallen it was difficult to go beyond the verandah--the mud precluding the possibility of a constitutional.

The nearest approach to excitement was mushroom-gathering; and in this occupation my inability to distinguish the edible from the poisonous species made my efforts unacceptable.

We lived so "far from the madding crowd" that its din scarcely reached our ears.

A week or ten days might pass without our receiving any intelligence from the outer world.

The nearest post-office was in the district town, and with that distant point we had no regular system of communication.