‘But did you like Russia, grandmamma,’ asked Alice; ‘so cold and horrible, with wolves and bears?’
‘The winter in Russia is very long, and where I lived it sometimes lasted half the year, and we saw no grass all that time.’
‘How did you like to live in Russia, then?’
‘I had kind friends there; but though I liked some people very much, I did not like the country or the climate. In truth, dear children, there is no country in the whole world like our dear England; no country where people love God and pray to God so much as in England; and no country where everybody tries to do so much good as in England.’
‘Now, Alice, look for the two great capital cities of Russia. The old capital is called Moscow, and the new one is called St. Petersburg.’
Alice looked carefully at her map, and when grandmamma had told her that St. Petersburg lies high up in the north and Moscow much lower to the east, Alice found both places.
‘Please show me, grandmamma, where you lived.’
‘Here,’ said grandmamma, ‘on the shores of the Gulf of Finland, where the sea freezes in winter.’
