dance in the puddle was a certain celebration of victorious safety. But alas, the man on horseback was the son of her old master. She could not be made to understand that he could not seize her at the moment, and carry her home.

'Child," said Mrs. Templeman, seriously, shaking her finger as she spoke, "he is in much more danger than you. Tell me his name and he shall go to the lock-up."

At a statement so absurd the girl's mouth opened wide again in amazement beyond language.

Then other children eagerly volunteered the statement that the man with the shiny hat, who was talking with "Master Jim" was a certain catch-pole, known to them as "Blister Ben." What his official function was could not be found out. Under martial law, as the ladies knew, it was nothing. But for all that, every boy and girl in the room seemed to be in terrible dread of "Blister Ben." He had been some sort of constable under the old regime, and was to the few who knew Georgetown, the type of all imagined and unimagined terrors, which they had communicated to the others.

There was not a particle of danger for the nameless waif in the day time. But the children had so many stories of disappear ances at night, that the ladies sent to consult Miss Jane Stevens as to their wisest course. The poor black girl herself was utterly silent. She seemed to have played her last card, and the mere appearance of "Master Jim' was too much for her. It was impossible to persuade her he was in more danger than she.

Miss Jane Stevens was not frightenednot she. She tried to encourage the girl, not more successfully than the others. She could go to Ma-ma Triplet's house, or she could go to Tom Massey's, or she could go to Lucy Deneale's. Or Miss Jane Stevens would take her home with her, and she could sleep on a certain sofa in her lodgings. To all which the poor girl offered a dead, deaf, dumb and numb denial. She seemed disposed to die in the last trench, and to defend herself against the minions of Master Jim by a barricade made of globes and blackboards.

Mrs. Templeman interposed. "You will go with me? I am sure you will go with me?"

Nobody ever resisted such eagerness, I believe. The girl seemed to melt, though she said nothing.

Mrs. Templeman looked at her watch. "Bless me! Theodore will be here in fifteen minutes with the carriage. And if I am not ready he will cut me off with a shilling in his will. Wherever is my shawl?—and my hat? Isabelle! quick! quick! bring my things!"

Miss Jane Stevens looked doubtfully at the waif's costume.

"Fifteen minutes, did you say ?" "Thirteen minutes and forty-seven seconds, dear Miss Jane Stevens, to be accurate."

Miss Jane Stevens laughed and coaxed the waif away.

In ten minutes they re-appeared; the waif had on gigantic boots from the Swampscott sewing-cirle, white stockings from the Coos County Education Society, underclothes of names unknown to her from the Helpers of the Ninth Presbyterian Church in Troy," and an alpaca frock which had once been the bettermost dress of the daughter of minister in South Colchester. She had on a hat which had come from the West Upton factories. Master Jim himself would not have known her. Far less did Mrs. Templeman.

Theodore was on time with his carriage. Mrs. Templeman's new maid was lifted into it with some difficulty.

And within the hour the Russian Minister led Mrs. Templeman out to lunch, and they were rattling nonsense in French together about his translation of an ode of Zhukoffski's.

"She wants us to see the poor waif in bed," said Mrs. Templeman. "Take that

candle and come."

Rachel followed to the end of the house, both led by the housekeeper. They went quietly into the neat little bedroom.

THE Russian mind is essentially religious. Infidelity is foreign to its nature; while Protestantism, or the tendency to explore new fields of religious belief and practice under the guidance of an untrammeled conscience, is deeply and widely inherent. The noblesse, indeed, are almost universally faithful to the church and to the hierarchical principle of government; but a large part of the people have for centuries claimed the right to be their own masters in religious matters, and new sects are constantly arising, some of which carry the Protestant principle to most absurd conclusions. It is not the abuses, however,-natural to a degraded and ignorant people,-that should command our attention, but the fact that the most ultra democracy exists in autocratic Russia; for the history of the world shows us how short is the step from freedom in religious to freedom in political opinion. A consciousness of this, doubtless, is the reason why the government has so often and sorely persecuted the heretics and dissenters within its borders; and it is evident, indeed, that this unconquerable love of freedom in spiritual things,-together with the wide democracy of the village system,-will prove of vast import to the future of the empire.

The subject is too great to be more than glanced at here; but the interest excited by even a brief glimpse can be satisfied by the recent French and English writers on Russia, among whom Mr. Wallace, perhaps,

takes the lead.

Of those who are entirely free from all bond to the National Church, the sect of the “Molokáni” is the most important. Wide

spread as is this sect, but little is known of its origin, belief, or numbers; and even the significance of its name is in obscurity. Molokáni, in the Russian tongue, means Milk Drinkers; and some judge it to have been given them by their enemies-like the name of Shaker and of Quaker-because they refuse to keep the Orthodox fasts in Lent, but eat milk and whatever substances came from it. Others derive their name from the river of Molotchnaya, or Milky Stream, along whose banks their first settlements were found. Some think that the sect was founded in the sixteenth century by Protestants; but their first historical appearance was during the reign of Catherine II. There are several hundred thousand members and they are found in Samara, on the north coast of the sea of Azof, in the Crimea, the Caucasus, Siberia, and in the central provinces-especially that of Tambóf. Outwardly, the Molokáni are distinguished from their neighbors by a marked advance in material welfare. They have better homes, better clothes, and greater available means. They are more prompt in paying their taxes and their debts. În many points of doctrine and practice, they are much like the Scotch Presbyterians; and the surest way to their hearts-much closed against the stranger by the long persecution they have suffered-is by telling them of that sect in the far West. "Where is that country?" they eagerly ask. "Is it to the east, or the west?" "Is it very far away?" "Oh, if our Presbyter could only hear all that!" They cling sturdily to the Bible, and men are found among the peasantry who can repeat the whole of the New

nounced by the prophets. Women'vie with the men as teachers and prophets, and they call themselves "Saviours" and "mothers of God." Their discipline consists in every thing that can weaken the flesh and exalt the spirit; and to this end they flog one another severely, the one bearing the most without resentment being the greatest saint. Thousands of this sect, too, have been sent to the Caucasus and to Siberia, where they are severely worked in the mines. They are innocent in their dealings with their fellow

men.

Next in age and importance come the "Dukhobortsi," or champions of the Holy Spirit. Their book of doctrine, oddly enough, was written by a foe for the purpose of ridicule. They liked it so well that they adopted it at once. They do not, how ever, lay much stress upon the book, and they never read any Scripture as a service, holding that the conscience is the only in fallible guide. For a similar reason they build no churches, even where they could do so, as they say that the temple of God is the living heart. In many points they are like the Old Testament Jews,-holding that every father of a family is a priest, and practicing the rite of circumcision. There is a sect, too, of "Jumpers," a peculiar form of religious practice which seems to be very widely spread over the earth. In this, as in several of the minor sects, the erotic element is painfully prominent. The Jumpers perform much as do the "Dancing Dervishes" of Constantinople.

But time would fail even to mention the many religious developments in the great empire. The Russians, like the Hindoos, boast of a hundred sects, and they are constantly increasing in number. The peculiarity of the Russian mind is well shown by the words of a parish priest: "I have never known a peasant learn to read," he said, "and to think for himself, who did not fall away into dissent."

In 1868 a new sect arose, who felt called by Christ to teach, to suffer, and to build a church. In the midst of winter they broke the thick ice in the Volga, baptized each other in the chilling flood, changed their names, and then held a solemn feast. From

that day they have called themselves "Little Christians." They have no priests, and but a slight form of prayer. They reject images, wafers and sacred oil. The government became alarmed and commenced an active persecution, under which, of course, the sect is rapidly increasing. Soon after another body sprang up-rejecting the established church and forming their own rules of life, which seem to be of a high order. They call themselves "Helpers; and the government spies sent to watch them confessed that they never drank, swore, lied, or got into debt. But they preferred family worship to that of the parish priest, and they would not go to confession. Consequently they suffered persecution; which, however, was short as they are now left unmolested. Still later a sect has appeared in the province of Viatka, where more than twenty different heresies exist. The distinctive article of their creed gave them the unenviable name of "NonPayers of Rent." Of course it was impossible that they could be kept hidden. When rents became due, they refused to pay. The leaders were arrested, and yet remain in custody; but the government is perplexed to know how to manage an increasing body of men, who make it the first principle of life not to pay their rent-charges.

Another new body are the "Chislenniki," or Counters. The founder is still living and is the high priest. He was met one night in the woods by a venerable man, who offered him a book to read. Opening it, Taras Maxim found the message of salvation written in the Slavonic tongue. It commanded the people of God to count themselves and be set apart from the world. It called the National Church the Devil's Church; it declared Thursday to be the true Sabbath; it spoke contemptuously of saints and angels, and abolished the seven sacraments and the priesthood. Maxim returned to Semenof and preached the new doctrine. He speedily made converts, who counted themselves off and formed the "Secret Semenof Church." They show the bitterest contempt for the Council and the State. While the Orthodox pass by to church on Sunday morning, they shut them

selves in their houses and manifest their despite in true Oriental style. Their chief tenet is that man must sin in order to be saved from sin. This doctrine, of course, leads to wild excesses, and the sect is looked upon, perhaps justly, as very immoral.

But the strangest of all the heresies is held by the "Napoleonists." Their spiritual strength, also, is spent in hating the church and the government. And as Napoleon was the chief enemy of Russia in recent times, they look upon him as the true Messiah and worship him as God. Placing his bust on an altar, they fall before it in prayer. The worship has to be maintained privately, but they are said to be numerous even in Moscow. They believe that Napoleon is still alive; that he fled from St. Helena to Central Asia; that he is now dwelling in Irkutsk, near Lake Baikal, on the frontiers of Chinese Tartary; and that he will come forth at the appointed time, leading a great army to the overthrow of Russia and to the uplifting of his church to glory and power. Busts of Napoleon, indeed, are common in Russian houses, among all sects and ranks. Even the royal family show great partiality to the likeness of their giant foe.

The great schism of the seventeenth century has been fruitful in dissenting and heretical sects. The "Old Ritualists," or "Old Believers," as some call them, who rebelled against Peter the Great, for causing an ancient mistake in spelling the name of Jesus in the liturgy to be rectified; who held out seven long years in their barricaded monastery against Czar and Council; who were finally driven mercilessly across the frontiers, or lived for years in the woods of the North; these have grown and multiplied under a policy oscillating between toleration and persecution, and to-day have a vast power in the empire. As they are not Protestants strictly, but still cling to the Orthodox Church, which they claim is only among themselves, we have only here to notice the seceders from these Schismatics, who approach nearer to Protestantism in principle. Part of the "Old Ritualists" believed that the Church still existed in the communion of the faithful, although the authorities had

become heretical. But others declared that the Church had ceased on earth, that divine authority had been withdrawn, that there were no longer any sacraments, and that salvation must henceforth be sought in prayer and such exercises as did not require the aid of a consecrated priest. These people are called "Bezpopoftsi," or the "Priestless People." Though they are now powerful and live in tranquility, at the first they were racked with wild thoughts within and tormented by persecution without. They believed that hell had been let loose, that the authorities were the ministers of Satan, and that the Czar was Antichrist.

In this they were like the Protestants of Britain in the seventeenth century; and like the Covenanters of the north they fled to the woods and caves to wait the downfall of the beast and the coming of the Lord. When they found, however, that the world did not come to an end, some abandoned the extremest views and returned to their former life. A large number of them, settled near Lake Onega, so modified their doctrines that they were reconciled to the government. But others looked upon this backsliding with horror; and a peasant, Theodosi, of littl learning but strong powers, founded a new sect near the Polish frontier. These "Theodosians" developed extravagant ideas, but as the government grew more lenient in its treatment, they gradually toned down and were allowed to build a monastery at Moscow. Their Superior became a power in the empire, and through his influence the Priestless People have at last been brought to live peaceably with the authorities. They gave up celibacy and contracted marriages which were honest, but for a long time unrecognized by Church and State. Recently the government has made some wise concessions in this regard, and the sect is now protected in its peculiar rites.

Many of the Priestless People were shocked at this abandonment of the cardinal point of celibacy, and they formed a society by themselves, holding firmly the old belief that the Czar is Antichrist. Still another schism in their ranks produced the "Christ's People," as they term themselves, or, as they are popularly called, the "Wanderers."