Russian Literature – Children Books – Russian Poetry – Leo Tolstoy – The Two Old Men – Contents
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IX.
As Efím went to sleep, a temptation came over him.
“They have not taken the pilgrim’s money,” he thought, “he did not have any. Nowhere did he offer anything. He told me to give, but he himself did not offer any. He took a rouble from me.”
As Efím was thinking so, he began to rebuke himself:
“How dare I judge the man, and commit a sin. I will not sin.” The moment he forgot himself, he again thought that the pilgrim had a sharp eye on money, and that it was unlikely that they had taken the money from him. “He never had any money,” he thought. “It’s only an excuse.”
They got up before evening and went to an early mass at the Church of the Resurrection,—to the Sepulchre of the Lord. The pilgrim did not leave Efím’s side, but walked with him all the time.
They came to the church. There was there collected a large crowd of worshippers, Greeks, and Armenians, and Turks, and Syrians. Efím came with the people to the Holy Gate. A monk led them. He took them past the Turkish guard to the place where the Saviour was taken from the cross and anointed, and where candles were burning in nine large candlesticks. He showed and explained everything to them. Efím placed a candle there. Then the monks led Efím to the right over steps to Golgotha, where the cross stood; there Efím prayed; then Efím was shown the cleft where the earth was rent to the lowermost regions; then he was shown the place where Christ’s hands and feet had been nailed to the cross, and then he was shown Adam’s grave, where Christ’s blood dropped on his bones. Then they came to the rock on which Christ sat when they put the wreath of thorns on his head; then to the post to which Christ was tied when he was beaten. Then Efím saw the stone with the two holes, for Christ’s feet. They wanted to show him other things, but the people hastened away: all hurried to the grotto of the Lord’s Sepulchre. Some foreign mass was just ended, and the Russian began. Efím followed the people to the grotto.
He wanted to get away from the pilgrim, for in thought he still sinned against him, but the pilgrim stuck to him, and went with him to mass at the Sepulchre of the Lord. They wanted to stand close to it, but were too late. There was such a crowd there that it was not possible to move forward or back. Efím stood there and looked straight ahead and prayed, but every once in awhile he felt his purse, to see whether it was in his pocket. His thoughts were divided; now he thought that the pilgrim had deceived him; and then he thought, if he had not deceived him, and the pocketbook had really been stolen, the same might happen to him.
Russian Literature – Children Books – Russian Poetry – Leo Tolstoy – The Two Old Men – Contents
Copyright holders – Public Domain Book
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