Russian Literature – Children Books – Russian Poetry – Leo Tolstoy – What Men Live By – Contents
< < < . IV .
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V.
In the morning Semén awoke. The children were asleep; his wife had gone to the neighbours to borrow some bread. The stranger of last night, in the old trousers and shirt, was alone, sitting on the bench and looking upward. And his face was brighter than on the day before.
And Semén said:
“Well, dear man, the belly begs for bread, and the naked body for clothes. We must earn our living. Can you work?”
“I do not know anything.”
Semén wondered at him, and said:
“If only you are willing: people can learn anything.”
“People work, and I, too, will work.”
“What is your name?”
“Michael.”
“Well, Mikháyla, you do not want to talk about yourself,—that is your business; but a man has to live. If you work as I order you, I will feed you.”
“God save you, and I will learn. Show me what to do!”
Semén took the flax, put it on his fingers and began to make an end.
“It is not a hard thing to do, you see.”
Mikháyla watched him, himself put the flax on his fingers, and made a thread end, as Semén had taught him.
Semén showed him how to wax it. Mikháyla again learned the way at once. The master showed him how to weld the bristle, and how to whet, and Mikháyla learned it all at once.
No matter what work Semén showed to him, he grasped it at once, and on the third day he began to sew as though he had done nothing else in all his life. He worked without unbending himself, ate little, between the periods of work kept silence, and all the time looked toward the sky. He did not go into the street, spoke no superfluous word, and did not jest or laugh.
Only once was he seen to smile, and that was the first evening, when the woman gave him a supper.
Russian Literature – Children Books – Russian Poetry – Leo Tolstoy – What Men Live By – Contents
Copyright holders – Public Domain Book
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