If a lady drops her bracelet or brooch
in the street during the period of this third fall, she need not
trouble herself to put out handbills offering a reward for its
discovery, at all events not before the spring; for it will be
preserved in its hiding-place, as well as ice can preserve it,
until about the middle of April, when, if the amount of the reward
be greater than the value of the article lost, it will in all
probability be restored to her. The Russians put on their furs at
the first signs of winter, and the sledges make their appearance
in the streets as soon as the snow is an inch or two thick. Of
course at such a time a sledge is far from possessing any advantage
over a carriage on wheels; but the Russians welcome their appearance
with so much enthusiasm, that the first sledge-drivers are sure
of excellent receipts for several days. The _droshkies_ disappear
one by one with the black mud of autumn; and by the time the gilt
cupolas of the churches, and the red and green roofs of the houses,
have been made whiter than their own walls, the city swarms with
sledges.
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