The former died, however, in 1840, and the charge devolved on another aunt, Mme Jushkov, who lived in Kazan. The tedium of the schoolroom and the reproofs of his tutor made a reverse side to the picture, but did not prevent this fund of early memories from being, as he writes, " ever to be treasured, and fondled again and again, serving as a well-spring from which to draw my choicest treasures." After his father's death at Moscow, in 1837, Tolstoy and his brothers were placed under the guardianship of his aunt, the countess Osten-Sacken, and in the care of Mme Ergolskaya, a distant relative. At other times he was quite happy sitting beside his father's coachman on an expedition to one of the neighbouring towns, or with his brothers running in and out of the stables and coach-houses. Hunting and shooting, the delight of the Russian noble, occupied much of his father's leisure, and from his earliest years the boy was wont to accompany his parent. But Tolstoy's childhood was not without its share of wholesome pleasure. Whereupon the youthful Epicurean flung aside his books and pencils, and, stretched on his bed, fell to munching sweetmeats and reading romances. He describes in Childhood how, one day, it dawned suddenly upon his mind that Death was ever lying in wait, and that to be happy one must enjoy the present, unconcerned with the future. This sensitiveness led him as he grew older to hide himself away from his playmates and spend hours in lonely brooding. He was plain and very sensitive on the point, suffering keenly for want of notice and affection. As a child, Tolstoy, though observant and thoughtful, showed no marked talent. Six years later his father died also, at the age of forty-one. Count Leo Tolstoy was the youngest but one of the five children of this marriage, and lost his mother when he was barely three years old. By his marriage with the princess Maria Volkonsky, Count Nicholas in a great measure rebuilt the family fortunes, which had fallen into decay during the two previous decades. After serving for a short time in the army he retired in 1824, and led the life of a Russian boyar. His descendant Nicholas (the father of the great author) was born in 1797. The first ancestor of distinction was Petr Andreevich Tolstoy. The Tolstoy family, to whom it had belonged for several generations, was originally of German extraction, and had settled in Russia in the days of Peter the Great. LEO TOLSTOY (1828-1910), Russian novelist and social reformer, was born on the 9th of September (August 28) 1828, in the home of his fathers - Yasnaya Polyana, near Toula - a large country house (not the present one) built in a severely formal style, with Doric pillars and architraves, standing solitarily in a typical Russian landscape.
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