“My father’s house was in the province, seven miles from the nearest city. My father served in the navy, but an accident that befell him deprived him of the opportunity to continue his naval service and forced him not only to give up his place to another, but also to abandon all hopes of a half pension. He had a small fortune, and besides, my mother did not marry him without a dowry: with these funds, having bought a house and ten or twelve acres of land, he became an amateur farmer and took up farming on a small scale...”