a half to two
I wondered whether I should be able to get to Russia for seven marks , supposing I were to be seized with an unnatural craving to go there . All the labourers who work here from March to December are Russians and Poles , or a mixture of both . We send a man over who can speak their language , to fetch as many as he can early in the year , and they arrive with their bundles , men and women and babies , and as soon as they have got here and had their fares paid , they disappear in the night if they get the chance , sometimes fifty of them at a time , to go and work singly or in couples for the peasants , who pay them a pfenning or two more a day than we do , and let them eat with the family . From us they get a mark and a half to two marks a day , and as many potatoes as they can eat . The women get less , not because they work less , but because they are women and must not be encouraged . The overseer lives with them , and has a loaded revolver in his pocket and a savage dog at his heels . For the first week or two after their arrival , the foresters and other permanent officials keep guard at night over the houses they are put into .