The Lonely House

Transcriber's Note: 1. Page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/lonelyhousefrom00wistgoog
Electrotyped and printed by J. B. Lippincott Company The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A .
I TAKE PLEASURE IN INSCRIBING THIS TRANSLATION--THE LAST I SHALL EVER COMPLETE--TO THE CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN OF THOSE WHO SO KINDLY WELCOMED THE FIRST, PUBLISHED A LIFE-TIME AGO.
ANNIS LEE WISTER
Lindenshade, Walungford, Pa. September, 1907
Ukraine! Ukraine! For years I had longed to spend some weeks in Southern Ukraine. The descriptions I had read of its wonderful mountains had greatly attracted me; I was certain of adding there many valuable specimens to my collection; that section of country had been so rarely visited by entomologists that I might even hope to enrich our German fauna with a new species. Some years before a butterfly-collector from Vienna had discovered there the caterpillar of the beautiful Saturnia cæcigena , found previously only in Dalmatia. Why might I not hope for something equally interesting!
The scenery of Southern Ukraine is not thought to be very fine: the mountains are much less imposing than in other Alpine districts, but the Carpathian range is said to have many very interesting caves, and strange formations of rock, while for the naturalist its fauna and flora offer a rich field for investigation in its mountain fastnesses and deep valleys.
If travel in that section of the country were only not attended with such risk and inconvenience! Travellers who seemed thoroughly familiar with its political and social condition warned me seriously not to attempt going thither. The only tolerable accommodation for strangers, they said, is to be found in the larger towns--Laibach, Adelsberg, etc., and on the high road followed by tourists; as soon as the traveller attempts to penetrate the interior he finds only wretched inns, no comfort of any description, and a poverty-stricken peasantry, speaking the dialect of the country, and understanding not one word of German. All expeditions into the valleys are fraught with discomfort and even hardships. Nevertheless, little alluring as were the accounts given me of the country, the prospect of adding to my collections--I am a naturalist--an entomologist--was so tempting that when I had a longer vacation than usual I determined to fulfil a long cherished desire and to pass a spring in Southern Ukraine.