Russian Literature – Children Books – Russian Poetry – Leo Tolstoy – What Men Live By – Contents
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II.
Semén walked over to the man, and looked at him; and saw that it was a young man, in the prime of his strength, with no bruises on his body, but evidently frozen and frightened: he was leaning back and did not look at Semén, as though he were weakened and could not raise his eyes. Semén went up close to him, and the man suddenly seemed to wake up. He turned his head, opened his eyes, and looked at Semén. And this one glance made Semén think well of the man. He threw down the felt boots, ungirt himself, put his belt on the boots, and took off his caftan.
“What is the use of talking?” he said. “Put it on! Come now!”
Semén took the man by his elbows and began to raise him. The man got up. And Semén saw that his body was soft and clean, his hands and feet not calloused, and his face gentle. Semén threw his caftan over the man’s shoulders. He could not find his way into the sleeves. So Semén put them in, pulled the caftan on him, wrapped him in it, and girded it with the belt.
Semén took off his torn cap, intending to put it on the naked man, but his head grew cold, and so he thought: “My whole head is bald, while he has long, curly hair.” He put it on again. “I had better put the boots on him.”
He seated himself and put the felt boots on him.
The shoemaker addressed him and said:
“That’s the way, my friend! Now move about and get warmed up. This business will be looked into without us. Can you walk?”
The man stood, looking meekly at Semén, but could not say a word.
“Why don’t you speak? You can’t stay here through the winter. We must make for a living place. Here, take my stick, lean on it, if you are weak. Tramp along!”
And the man went. And he walked lightly, and did not fall behind.
As they were walking along, Semén said to him:
“Who are you, please?”
“I am a stranger.”
“I know all the people here about. How did you get near that chapel?”
“I cannot tell.”
“Have people insulted you?”
“No one has. God has punished me.”
“Of course, God does everything, but still you must be making for some place. Whither are you bound?”
“It makes no difference to me.”
Semén was surprised. He did not resemble an evil-doer, and was gentle of speech, and yet did not say anything about himself. And Semén thought that all kinds of things happen, and so he said to the man:
“Well, come to my house and warm yourself a little.”
Semén walked up to the farm, and the stranger did not fall behind, but walked beside him. A wind rose and blew into Semén’s shirt, and his intoxication went away, and he began to feel cold. He walked along, sniffling, and wrapping himself in his wife’s jacket, and he thought:
“There is your fur coat: I went to get myself a fur coat, and I am coming back without a caftan, and am even bringing a naked man with me. Matréna will not praise me for it!”
And as Semén thought of Matréna, he felt sorry; and as he looked at the stranger and recalled how he had looked at him at the chapel, his blood began to play in his heart.
Photogravure from Painting by A. Kivshénko
Russian Literature – Children Books – Russian Poetry – Leo Tolstoy – What Men Live By – Contents
Copyright holders – Public Domain Book
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