"Your nose! your nose, sir!" This is a cry often heard in the streets
of Russia.
Russia is a very large country. Part of it is in Europe. A great part
of it is very cold. When a person in the cold part of Russia goes out
riding in winter, he has to cover his face, all except the nose and
eyes. Sometimes his nose gets very cold, and would freeze if some one
did not cry out, "Your nose, sir!" Why? When one's nose gets so cold,
it becomes numb. It has no feeling. One would not know that it was
freezing if some person did not cry out. The cold nose must then be
rubbed with snow. You would think this a strange way to keep it from
freezing, but it is the best way to take out the frost.
There are many kinds of houses in Russia. The houses have to be made
very warm. So they are built with double walls. In rich people's
houses they have stoves like ours. But in the poor people's houses the
stoves are built of brick. They always burn wood, for coal costs too
much in Russia. The stoves are sometimes built very high. Often they
are as high as the ceiling. Sometimes people lie on top of the great
stove to keep themselves warm.
[Illustration: A Russian Carriage.]
In most of the houses in the country, they have no beds. There are
benches along the wall, which they use both for chairs and beds. In
some houses the children sleep on the floor on pieces of felt.
Most of the people in Russia are farmers. They raise a great deal of
wheat. The people in many other countries get wheat from Russia.
[Illustration: A Russian Farmer and his Family.]
The children have to wear very warm clothes because it is so cold the
greater part of the year. Their coats are lined with fur. In winter
the children in the towns have great fun on the ice hills. Ice hills
are made in all the towns.
First they build a high tower, and down from the top of it they make a
steep hill. Blocks of ice are laid on this hill and water is poured
over them. The water freezes, and thus the ice hill is made. On one
side of the ice hill there is a place to draw up the sleds. The boys
and girls start at the top, and down they go with merry laughing and
shouting! So you see they have fine sport on their ice hills.
When the children are not playing on the ice hills, they go skating or
sleighing.
In some parts of Russia they have funny ferryboats. When the rivers
are frozen over in winter, the boats cannot sail on them. Then the
people use chairs instead of boats. There are warm covers on the
chairs, and men on skates push them across the ice. It costs less than
one cent to ride across a river in one of these chairs.
In St. Petersburg they build an ice palace every winter. St.
Petersburg is the largest city in Russia. It is the place where the
emperor lives. The Emperor of Russia is sometimes called the Czar.
They make the ice palace with square blocks of ice. They put the
blocks together and pour water between them. When the water freezes,
the wall is solid like a wall of brick or stone. Everything inside the
palace is made of ice. There are ice stairs and ice tables, and ice
chairs, and beautiful flowers made of ice. Warm rugs of fur are put on
the chairs so that people who sit on them may not be cold. Often there
are grand balls and parties in this beautiful palace of ice.
[Illustration: A Russian Family.]
In summer, too, the boys and girls in Russia have a good time. The
boys have wrestling matches, for they are strong.
The girls have a game like ring-around-a-rosy. They also have a game
much like our seesaw. A girl stands on each end of a board. Then one
girl jumps up and comes down on the board. This sends the other girl
up, and in her turn she comes down on the board and sends the first
girl up. And so they play on, going up and down. This is not an easy
game to play. It is some time before the girls can do it well. Some
girls are so skillful at this game that they can keep jumping a long
time without falling.
Some people in Russia have very queer cradles for their babies. One
kind of cradle is a basket which hangs by ropes from the ceiling.
Another kind of cradle is made of cloth sewed to a wooden frame. This
cradle also hangs from the ceiling.
In some places in Russia the nurses who take care of the babies wear
dresses to show whether the baby is a girl or a boy. If it is a boy
the nurse wears a blue dress. If it is a girl the nurse wears a pink
dress.
There are not schools in all parts of Russia, but in some places there
are good schools, and the children learn to read and write.
I must not forget to tell you of the great bell in Russia. It is the
largest bell in the world. It is in Moscow, a very old city of Russia,
and it is called the great bell of Moscow. But it has never been rung,
for it was cracked in the side when it was being made. It is nearly
twenty feet high, and is now used as a chapel.
[Illustration: The Great Bell at Moscow.]
The next largest bell in the world is also in Moscow. This bell is
hung up in a church; and when they ring it, the sound is heard all over
the city like the rolling of thunder.