Page:Leo Tolstoi - Life Is Worth Living and Other Stories - tr. Adolphus Norraikow (1892).djvu/13

6 by those who believe in the reality of a Divine Providence; that if a man die he shall live again; and that, aside from all theological controversy, the saving of our souls in this present world is but a simple matter after all.

The story, "Life Is Worth Living," is an allegory. It describes the experiences of a poor cobbler and his wife who "entertained an angel unawares." Through the presence of their celestial visitor they learned the three great truths which constitute the basis of man's existence—of what we are made, and what is essential and what is non-essential to our human life. During the course of this very strange narrative Count Tolstoï gives incidentally some excellent pictures of Russian life and of the hardships endured by the peasantry in winter.

"Two Old Men" is a most entertaining and instructive tale of a couple of aged comrades who undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Their object in taking the long journey was to pay their devotions to God in that Mecca for pilgrims, and was the outcome of a long-standing agreement between them. The old men were bosom friends, though they differed materially from each other in manner and tem-