Page:Leo Tolstoi - Life Is Worth Living and Other Stories - tr. Adolphus Norraikow (1892).djvu/158

Rh It was Martin's first impulse to send his son to a sister, who resided in a country village; but he afterward changed his mind. "It would be hard," he thought, "for my dear Kapitoshka to grow up among a strange family. It were better to keep him by myself."

Martin left his employer and made a little home for himself and his son. But God had not given him luck with his children, and he feared that Kapitoshka would never reach manhood.

As the boy grew older he was of great assistance to his father, who was happy and proud of him; but before long he took sick, and after one week of suffering he went the way of his brothers and sisters.

Poor Martin, in his despair at the loss of his only son, began to murmur even against the providence of God. He became so despondent that at times he prayed that the Lord might send him death, reproaching his Maker for having deprived a feeble old man of his only beloved child.

It happened that a countryman of his, an old