It was precisely she who attained the fact that
Lichonin's quarters very soon became a charming, quiet centre;
where all the comrades of Lichonin, who, as well as the majority
of the students of that time, were forced to sustain a bitter
struggle with the harsh conditions of life, felt somehow at ease,
as though in a family; and rested at soul after heavy
tribulations, need, and starvation. Lichonin recalled with
grateful sadness her friendly complaisance, her modest and
attentive silence, on those evenings around the samovar, when so
much had been spoken, argued and dreamt.
In learning, things went with great difficulty. All these self-
styled cultivators, collectively and separately, spoke of the fact
that the education of the human mind, and the upbringing of the
human soul must flow out of individual motives; but in reality
they stuffed Liubka with just that which seemed to them the most
necessary and indispensable, and tried to overcome together with
her those scientific obstacles, which, without any loss, might
have been left aside.
Thus, for example, Lichonin did not want, under any conditions, to
become reconciled, in teaching her arithmetic, to her queer,
barbarous, savage, or, more correctly, childish, primitive method
of counting.
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