'Listen,' said he one day; 'I am going to give you a lesson.'
'What on?' demanded bright-eyed Lisa.
Disregarding his niece's question, he continued:
'Write...'
'But what are we to write, uncle?' persisted Lisa.
'Listen; I will give you a theme...!'
'What will you give us?'
'A theme!' firmly replied Tolstoy. 'In what respect does Russia differ from other countries? Write it here, in my presence, and don't copy from one another! Do you hear?' added he, impressively.
In half an hour the 'compositions' were ready. Pláksin had to read his own, as his lines were so irregular that no one else could decipher them. In his opinion Russia differed from other countries in that, at carnival time, Russians eat pancakes and slide down ice-hills, and at Easter they colour eggs.
'Bravo!' said Tolstoy, and proceeded to make out Kólya's MS., in which Russia was distinguished by its snow, and Lisa's, in which 'troikas' (three-horse conveyances) played the chief part.