The next day, we were again on the way to another labor assignment, but the warden came and explained that the district commander suggested we might select a certain occupation in the workshops. My comrades separated: two signed on to be joiners; another two, metalworkers. I didn't want to be in a stuffy room. Worn down by casemate walls, I asked to be assigned to the carpenters building the church in the settlement's square.

The district commander's order chagrined my comrades. They interpreted it to mean they’d remain among the dark masses, assigned as was typical of the other penal laborers. For how long? Nevertheless, we would not allow the new district, completely impoverished of intellectuals, to refuse our services so easily.

I consoled my comrades with hope for a speedy deliverance and served as the primary example of submission to the established order. I was even glad I would be working somewhat voluntarily in the fresh air. Without such an assigned job, I would probably have sat in my room behind a book or a notebook for twelve hours a day, to wither away as I’d withered away in prison. I had no sharp pains, but my entire organism was sickened and emaciated. I was afraid to look at my pale, terribly thinned face in the mirror. My head was often spinning from low blood pressure. Even my jaw muscles, weakened from not using them for so long, hurt after my first conversations outside the casemate. Topping everything, during autumn, I wasn't spared the Sakhalin illnesses typical of all exiles just arrived there: upset digestion and night blindness. It was understood the change in water and diet caused this.

We arrived in Tymovsk District at that time when the uncultivated earth still provided a surprising harvest of large potatoes. This produce and the keta, a local variety of salmon, were exiles’ main fare. During the entire month of August, all Tym River valley residents fished for keta and stocked up for the entire year. But this fish has terrible characteristics. In late summer, it rushes from the sea to the river in improbable numbers for spawning, and stubbornly hurls itself again and again against the current until it knocks the last strength from itself and dies somewhere upriver.