"Well, you'll recall it some other time, if God is willing.
And while the blizzard is whirling out there you'd better have some jam, my dear.
This is cherry jam from the Golovliovo orchard.
Yevpraksia herself put it up."
"I am already helping myself to some.
I must admit cherry jam is a rare thing with me now.
Years ago I used to indulge every now and then, but now——! Your Golovliovo cherries are fine, so large and juicy. No matter how hard I tried to grow them at Dubrovino, they wouldn't come.
Did you add some French brandy to the jam, Yevpraksia?"
"Of course I did. Followed your directions.
Another thing I meant to ask you, how do you pickle cucumbers, do you use cardamoms?"
Arina Petrovna thought a bit, then made a gesture of perplexity.
"I don't remember, my dear. I think I used to put cardamoms in.
Now I don't. My pickling now is not much. But I used to put cardamoms in, yes, I remember very well now.
When I get home I'll look among the recipes, maybe I'll find it.
When I had my strength I used to make a note of everything.
If I liked something somewhere, I would ask how it was made, write it on a piece of paper, and then try it at home.
I once learned a secret, such a secret that the man who knew it was offered a thousand rubles to tell. He wouldn't do it.
And I gave the housekeeper a quarter, and she told me every bit of it."
"Yes, mother dear, in your day you certainly were a wizard."
"Well, I don't know if I was a wizard, but I can thank the Lord, I didn't squander my fortune. I kept adding to it.
Even now I taste of my righteous labors. It was I who planted the cherry trees in Golovliovo."
"Thanks for it, mother dear, many thanks.
Eternal thanks from me and my descendants. That's what I say."
Yudushka rose, went to mother dear and kissed her hand.
"And thanks to you, too, that you take your mother's welfare to heart.
Yes, your provisions are fine, very fine."
"Well, how do my provisions compare? You used to have provisions—perfectly stunning!
My, what cellars! And not an empty spot!"
"Yes, I used to have provisions, I may as well be frank about it.
Mine was a well-stocked house. And as to the many cellars I had, well, the household was much larger, ten times as many mouths as you have to-day.
Take the domestics alone. Everyone had to be fed and provided for.
Gherkins for one, cider for another, little by little, bit by bit, and it mounts up."
"Yes, those were good times.
Plenty of everything.
Grain and fruit, all in abundance."
"We used to save more manure, that is why."
"No, mother dear, that is not the reason.
It was God's blessing, that's what it was.
I remember father once brought an apple from the orchard, and it surprised everybody, it was too big to be put on a plate."
"Well, I don't remember that.
I know generally that apples used to be fine, but that they were the size of a plate, that I don't remember.
I do remember though, that we caught a carp in the Dubrovino pond weighing twenty pounds, yes, I remember that."
"Carps and fruit—everything was large then.
I remember the watermelons the gardener Ivan used to get. They were as big as this!"
Yudushka stretched out his arms in a circle, pretending he could not embrace the imaginary watermelon.
"Yes, those were watermelons.
Watermelons, my friend, are according to the year.
One year you get lots of them and they are good. Another year they are poor and few. And some years you don't get any at all.
Well, it depends upon the lucky ground, too.
On the estate of Grigory Aleksandrovich, for example, nothing came up, no fruit and no berries—nothing.