Russian Literature – Children Books – Russian Poetry – Leo Tolstoy – The Two Old Men – Contents
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XII.
Efím was away precisely a year. In the spring he returned home.
He reached his house in the evening. His son was not at home,—he was in the dram-shop. He returned intoxicated, and Efím began to ask him about the house. He saw by everything that the lad had got into bad ways without him. He had spent all the money, and the business he had neglected. His father scolded him, and he answered his father with rude words.
“You ought to have come back yourself,” he said. “Instead, you went away and took all the money with you, and now you make me responsible.”
The old man became angry and beat his son.
The next morning Efím Tarásych went to the elder to talk to him about his son. As he passed Eliséy’s farm, Eliséy’s wife was standing on the porch and greeting him:
“Welcome, friend!” she said. “Did you, dear man, have a successful journey?”
Efím Tarásych stopped.
“Thank God,” he said, “I have been at Jerusalem, but I lost your husband on the way. I hear that he is back.”
And the old woman started to talk to him, for she was fond of babbling.
“He is back, my dear; he has been back for quite awhile. He returned soon after Assumption day. We were so glad to see him back. It was lonely without him. Not that we mean his work,—for he is getting old. But he is the head, and it is jollier for us. How happy our lad was! Without him, he said, it was as without light for the eyes. It was lonely without him, my dear. We love him so much!”
“Well, is he at home now?”
“At home he is, neighbour, in the apiary, brushing in the swarms. He says it was a fine swarming season. The old man does not remember when there has been such a lot of bees. God gives us not according to our sins, he says. Come in, dear one! He will be so glad to see you.”
Efím walked through the vestibule and through the yard to the apiary, to see Eliséy. When he came inside the apiary, he saw Eliséy standing without a net, without gloves, in a gray caftan, under a birch-tree, extending his arms and looking up, and his bald spot shone over his whole head, just as he had stood in Jerusalem at the Lord’s Sepulchre, and above him, through the birch-tree, the sun glowed, and above his head the golden bees circled in the form of a wreath, and did not sting him. Efím stopped.
Eliséy’s wife called out to her husband:
“Your friend is here.”
Eliséy looked around. He was happy, and walked over toward his friend, softly brushing the bees out of his beard.
“Welcome, friend, welcome, dear man! Did you have a successful journey?”
“My feet took me there, and I have brought you some water from the river Jordan. Come and get it! But whether the Lord has received my work—”
“Thank God! Christ save you!”
Efím was silent.
“I was there with my feet, but in spirit you were there, or somebody else—”
“It is God’s work, my friend, God’s work.”
“On my way home I stopped at the hut where I lost you.”
Eliséy was frightened, and he hastened to say:
“It is God’s work, my friend, God’s work. Well, won’t you step in? I will bring some honey.”
And Eliséy changed the subject, and began to speak of home matters.
Efím heaved a sigh. He did not mention the people of the hut to Eliséy, nor what he had seen in Jerusalem. And he understood that God has enjoined that each man shall before his death carry out his vow—with love and good deeds.
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Russian Literature – Children Books – Russian Poetry – Leo Tolstoy – The Two Old Men – Contents
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