The master was silent, then shook himself, as though he wanted to throw something off, and raised his head and lifted it to the sky. He looked at it for a short time, and the wrinkles on his face disappeared, and he smiled and lowered his eyes on Aleb. He looked at Aleb, and smiled, and said:
"O Aleb, Aleb! Your master has commanded you to anger me. But my master is stronger than yours: you have not angered me, but I will anger your master. You were afraid that I would punish you, and you wanted to be free, Aleb. Know, then, that you will receive no punishment from me, and, since you wanted to be free, I free you in the presence of these my guests. Go in all four directions and take your holiday garment with you!"
And the good master went with his guests to the house. But the devil ground his teeth and fell down from the tree and sank through the earth.
LITTLE GIRLS WISER THAN OLD PEOPLE
It was an early Easter. They had just quit using sleighs. In the yards lay snow, and rills ran down the village. A large puddle had run down from a manure pile into a lane between two farms. And at this puddle two girls, one older than the other, had met. Both of them had been dressed by their mothers in new bodices. The little girl had a blue bodice, and the elder a yellow one with a design. Both had their heads wrapped in red kerchiefs. After ma.s.s the two girls went to the puddle, where they showed their new garments to each other, and began to play. They wanted to plash in the water. The little girl started to go into the puddle with her shoes on, but the older girl said to her:
"Don"t go, Malasha, your mother will scold you. I will take off my shoes, and you do the same."
The girls took off their shoes, raised their skirts, and walked through the puddle toward each other. Malasha stepped in up to her ankles, and said:
"It is deep, Akulka, I am afraid."
"Never mind," she replied, "it will not be any deeper. Come straight toward me!" They came closer to each other. Akulka said:
"Malasha, look out, and do not splash it up, but walk softly."
She had barely said that when Malasha plumped her foot into the water and bespattered Akulka"s bodice, and not only her bodice, but also her nose and eyes. When Akulka saw the spots on her bodice, she grew angry at Malasha, and scolded her, and ran after her, and wanted to strike her. Malasha was frightened and, seeing what trouble she had caused, jumped out of the puddle and ran home.
Akulka"s mother pa.s.sed by; she saw her daughter"s bodice bespattered and her shirt soiled.
"Where, accursed one, did you get yourself so dirty?"
"Malasha has purposely splashed it on me."
Akulka"s mother grasped Malasha and gave her a knock on the nape of her neck. Malasha began to howl, and her mother ran out of the house.
"Why do you strike my daughter?" she began to scold her neighbour.
One word brought back another, and the women began to quarrel. The men, too, ran out, and a big crowd gathered in the street. All were crying, and n.o.body could hear his neighbour. They scolded and cursed each other; one man gave another man a push, and a fight had begun, when Akulka"s grandmother came out. She stepped in the midst of the peasants, and began to talk to them:
"What are you doing, dear ones? Consider the holiday. This is a time for rejoicing. And see what sin you are doing!"
They paid no attention to the old woman, and almost knocked her off her feet. She would never have stopped them, if it had not been for Akulka and Malasha. While the women exchanged words, Akulka wiped off her bodice, and went back to the puddle in the lane. She picked up a pebble and began to scratch the ground so as to let the water off into the street. While she was scratching, Malasha came up and began to help her: she picked up a chip and widened the rill. The peasants had begun to fight, just as the water went down the rill toward the place where the old woman was trying to separate the men. The girls ran, one from one side of the rill, the other from the other side.
"Look out, Malasha, look out!" shouted Akulka.
Malasha wanted to say something herself, but could not speak for laughter.
The girls were running and laughing at a chip which was bobbing up and down the rill. They ran straight into the crowd of the peasants. The old woman saw them and said to the peasants:
"Shame on you before G.o.d, men! You have started fighting on account of these two girls, and they have long ago forgotten it: the dear children have been playing nicely together. They are wiser than you."
The men looked at the girls, and they felt ashamed. Then they laughed at themselves, and scattered to their farms.
"Except ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."
THE TWO BROTHERS AND THE GOLD
In ancient times there lived not far from Jerusalem two brothers, the elder named Athanasius, and the younger John. They lived in a mountain, not far from the city, and supported themselves on what people offered them. The brothers pa.s.sed all their days at work. They worked not for themselves, but for the poor. Wherever were those who were oppressed by labour, or sick people, or orphans, or widows, thither the brothers went, and there they worked, and received no pay. Thus the two brothers pa.s.sed the whole week away from each other, and met only on Sat.u.r.day evening in their abode. On Sunday alone did they stay at home, and then they prayed and talked with each other. And an angel of the Lord came down to them and blessed them. On Monday they separated each in his own direction. Thus they lived for many years, and each week the angel of the Lord came down to them and blessed them.
One Monday, when the brothers had already gone out to work and had gone each in his direction, the elder brother, Athanasius, was loath to part from his brother, and he stopped and looked back. John was walking with lowered head, in his direction, without looking back. But suddenly John, too, stopped and, as though he had suddenly noticed something, gazed at something, while shielding his eyes. Then he approached what he was gazing at, suddenly jumped to one side, and, without looking back, ran down-hill and up-hill again, away from the place, as though a wolf were after him. Athanasius was surprised. He went back to that spot, to see what it was that had so frightened his brother. He went up to it and saw something shining in the sun. He came nearer, and there lay a heap of gold on the ground, as though poured out from a measure. And Athanasius was still more surprised, both at the gold and at his brother"s leap.
"Why was he frightened, and why did he run away?" thought Athanasius.
"There is no sin in gold. The sin is in man. With gold one may do wrong, but also some good. How many orphans and widows may be fed, how many naked people dressed, and the poor and sick aided with this gold! We now serve people, but our service is small, though it is to the best of our strength. With this gold, however, we can serve people better."
Thus Athanasius thought, and he wanted to tell it all to his brother; but John was out of the range of hearing, and could be seen only as a speck the size of a beetle on another mountain.
Athanasius took off his cloak, scooped up as much gold as he was able to carry away, threw it on his shoulder, and carried it into the city. He came to a hostelry and left the gold with the keeper, and went back for the rest. When he had brought all the gold, he went to the merchants, bought some land in the city, and stones and timber, and hired labourers, and began to build three houses.
Athanasius lived for three months in the city, and built three houses there: one--an asylum for widows and orphans, another--a hospital for the sick and the lame, and a third--for pilgrims and for the needy. And Athanasius found three G.o.d-fearing old men, and one of them he placed in charge of the asylum, the second--of the hospital, and the third--of the hostelry. And Athanasius had still three thousand gold coins left. He gave each old man one thousand coins to distribute them to the poor.
The three houses began to fill up with people, and the people began to praise Athanasius for everything he had done. And Athanasius was glad of that and did not feel like leaving the city. But he loved his brother and so he bade the people farewell and, without keeping a single coin, went back to his abode, wearing the same old garment in which he had come.
As Athanasius was approaching his mountain, he thought:
"My brother did not judge rightly when he jumped from the gold and ran away from it. Have I not done better?"
And no sooner had Athanasius thought so than he saw the angel who used to bless him standing in the road and looking threateningly at him. And Athanasius was frightened and only said:
"For what, O Lord?"
And the angel opened his lips, and said:
"Go hence! You are not worthy of living with your brother. One leap of your brother is worth all the deeds which you have done with your gold."
And Athanasius began to speak of how many poor people and pilgrims he had fed, and how many orphans he had housed. And the angel said:
"The devil who placed the gold there has also taught you these words."
Then only did his conscience trouble him, and he saw that he had done his deeds not for G.o.d, and he wept and began to repent.
The angel stepped out of the road and opened the path on which his brother, John, was already standing and waiting for him. After that Athanasius no longer submitted to the temptation of the devil who had scattered the gold, and he understood that not with gold, but only with words can we serve G.o.d and men.
And the brothers began to live as before.