[Illustration]
_Chekhov, who has been called the Russian De Maupassant, was born
of humble parents in the suburbs of Moscow in 1860, and died of
consumption in 1904. Though he received the degree of M.D., he never
practised medicine. His was a nature far more poetical than that of
De Maupassant, and it would perhaps be nearer right to call him a
Russian Stevenson, for, like him, he had a lifelong struggle against
illness, and, like him, illness and suffering mellowed and sweetened
his character. Chekhov was an artist to his finger-tips, in a sense and
to a degree beyond that of any of his Russian predecessors._
[Illustration]
A WORK OF ART
THE STORY OF A GIFT