Chapter 60: Families of Old II

The New Year 165 came. January -was frosty, but dry; a stern winter covered sacred Jmud with a white coat three feet thick, the forests were bending and breaking under a wealth of snow bunches, snow dazzled the eyes during days of sunshine, and in the night by the moon there glittered as it were sparks vanishing on a surface stiffened by frost; wild beasts approached the dwellings of men, and the poor gray birds hammered with their beaks the windows covered with hoar frost and snow-flowers. On a certain evening Lady Oksana was sitting in the servants' hall with her work-maidens. It was an old custom of the Billevis, when there were no guests, to spend evenings with the servants singing hymns and edifying simple minds by their example. In this wise did Lady Oksana; and the more easily since among her house-maidens were some really noble, very poor orphans. These performed every kind of work, even the rudest, and were servants for ladies; in return they were trained in good manners, a