Anya returned the next day in tears and ran straight into Dmitri’s arms in the dining room, her bright pink backpack unzipped: “They made me learn!  My teacher made me learn!  I do not want to learn!  I want to fight Genghis Khan in the woods with my bunnies riding Kolya-the-horse’s back and pick flowers with Liza!  Liliya is a good Genghis Khan.  Why do I have to learn addition and subtraction?  It is awful!”

Dmitri bellowed with laughter: “Darling Annushka, tell me, did you make any friends?  And math is important: Someday you shall inherit all my verdant fields and rolling forests.  There will be grain stores and villagers...