Ah, said I, no doubt he was an agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society.
Perhaps so, returned Petroff, with a somewhat perplexed look, but he said nothing about that. His chief desire seemed to be to get us to listen to what he read out of his Bible. And some of us did listen, too. He gave one of the Bibles to my wife here, and she has been reading it pretty eagerly ever since.
What! this, then, is your wife? I exclaimed.
Yes, Marika is my wife, and Ivanka is my daughter, replied Petroff, with a tender glance at the little girl that trotted by his side.
Perhaps, Marika, your Cornish friend may have taught you to speak English, said I, in my native tongue, turning to the woman.
Marika shook her pretty head, laughed, and blushed. She seemed to understand me, but would not consent to reply in English.
The colporteur of whom you have spoken, said I, turning to the blacksmith, and again speaking Russian, did you a great service when he gave your wife the Word of God.
Dobri Petroff assented, but a frown for a minute overspread his face. Yes, he said, I admit that, but he also taught me to think, and it might have been better for mefor many of us in this landif we did not think; if we could eat and sleep and work like the brutes that perish.
I feared that I knew too well what the man referred to, and would gladly have dropped the subject, but could not do so without appearing rude.
It is always well to think, said I, when we think rightly, that is, in accordance with the teachings of the Bible, about which we have just been speaking. Marika has read much of it to you, no doubt?
She has, said the blacksmith, with a touch of sternness, and among other things, she has read to me that oppression driveth even a wise man mad. Am I to understand that as merely stating the fact, or justifying the madness?
Without waiting for a reply to the question, he went on, hurriedly
You saw that Turk to-day, who pushed me aside as if I had been a dog? That showed you the spirit of the men in power here, but you little know their practices
Petroff, said I, interrupting, and looking at the man earnestly, forgive me if I say that we had better not discuss the subject now. I have just arrived in your land, and know little about it yet. When I have seen and heard and thought much, I will be better able to understand you.
Petroff admitted with ready grace that I was right, and thrusting his fingers through the wild clustering curls of his black hair, as if to let the air circle more freely about his head, he turned sharp round, and pointed to a cottage which stood at a short distance from the high-road, at the entrance to the village.
That is our home, sir; we shall feel happy if you will enter it.
I willingly complied, and turned with them into the by-path that led to it.
The cottage was a mere hut, long and low, one end of which constituted the forge, the other end, divided into three compartments, being the dwelling-house. Here I found the hand of Marika very evident, in the neatness and cleanliness of everything in and around the place. The owners were very poor, but there was sufficient for comfort and health. On a shelf in a corner lay the Bible which the family had received from the colporteur. It was the only book in the house, and evidently a cherished treasure.
In another corner, on a rudely-made but warm couch, lay a treasure of a different stampa boy, apparently about two years of age. As I looked at the curly black hair, the well-shaped nose, the firm, rosy lips, and the broad brow, I turned to Petroff with a smile, and said
I need not ask if that boy is yours.
The man did not at once reply, but seized the child, which our entrance had awakened, and raised it high above his head.
Do you hear that, little Dob? The gentleman knows who you are by your mothers eyes.
Nay, said I, with a laugh, by its fathers nose. But now that you mention the eyes, I do recognise the mothers plainly. How old is he?
This was the first of a series of questions which opened the hearts of these people to me. On the strength of these jet-black eyes and the well-shaped nose, to say nothing of the colporteur and the Bible, Lancey and I struck up quite an intimate friendship, insomuch that at parting, little Dob gave me a familiar dab on the face, and Ivanka turned up her sweet little mouth to be kissedquite readily and of her own accord. There is nothing on earth so captivating as a trustful child. My heart was knit to little Ivanka on the spot, and it was plain that little Dob and Lancey were mutually attracted.
I remained at that village several days longer than I had intended, in order to cultivate the acquaintance of the blacksmiths family. During that time I saw a good deal of the other villagers, and found that Petroff was by no means a typical specimen. He was above his compeers in all respects, except in his own opinion; one of Natures gentlemen, in short, who are to be found, not numerously perhaps, but certainly, in almost every land, with unusual strength of intellect, and breadth of thought, and power of frame, and force of will, and nobility of aspiration. Such men in free countries, become leaders of the good and brave. In despotic lands they become either the deliverers of their country or the pests of societythe terror of rulers, the fomentors of national discord. Doubtless, in many cases, where right principles are brought to bear on them, they learn to submit, and, sometimes, become mitigators of the evils which they cannot cure.
Most of the other inhabitants of this village, some of whom were Mohammedans, and some Christians of the Greek Church, were sufficiently commonplace and uninteresting. Many of them appeared to be simply lazy and inert. Others were kindly enough, but stupid, and some were harsh, coarse, and cruel, very much as we find the peasantry in other parts of the world where they are ill-treated or uncared for.
While staying here I had occasion to go on shore one morning, and witnessed a somewhat remarkable scene in a café.
Lancey and I, having made a longer excursion than usual and the day being rather hot, resolved to refresh ourselves in a native coffee-house. On entering we found it already pretty well filled with Bulgarians, of whom a few were Moslems. They were apparently of the poorer class. Most of them sat on low stools, smoking chiboukslong pipes, with clay heads and amber mouth-piecesand drinking coffee. The Christians were all engrossed, at the moment of our arrival, with a stranger, who from his appearance and the package of books which lay open at his side, I at once judged to be a colporteur. Dobri Petroff, I observed, was near him, and interested so deeply in what was going on, that he did not at first perceive us.
Having selected some New Testaments and Bibles from his pack, the colporteur handed them round for inspection. These, I found, were printed in the modern Bulgarian tongue. The people greatly admired the binding of the volumes, and began to evince considerable interest in what the colporteur said about them. At last he proposed to read, and as no objection was made, he read and commented on several passages. Although a German, he spoke Bulgarian fluently, and ere long had aroused considerable interest, for the people had little or no knowledge of the Bible; the only one to which they had access being that which lay on the pulpit of the Greek Church of the village, and which, being written in the ancient Slavic language, was incomprehensible by them.
The priests in the Greek Church there are generally uneducated men, and their intoned services and unknown tongue do not avail much in the way of enlightenment. The schoolmasters, I was told by those who had good opportunity of judging, are much better educated than the priests. I observed that one of these, who had on a former visit been pointed out to me by my friend Dobri, sat not far from the colporteur smoking his chibouk with a grave critical expression of countenance.