Page:Leo Tolstoi - Life Is Worth Living and Other Stories - tr. Adolphus Norraikow (1892).djvu/72

Rh Simeon then said:

"Michael, please tell me the nature of the sin for which God punished you, and also what his three great truths are, that I may understand and follow them."

Michael answered:

"God punished me for my disobedience. I was one of the angels in heaven, and God sent me down to earth to carry from it a woman's soul. I came to this earth and found the woman sick and alone. She had just brought twin girls into the world and she was too feeble to care for them. The woman realized that I was the Angel of Death and that God had sent me for her soul, and she said: 'I know you are an angel sent by God, but please hear me. My husband was buried only last Tuesday. He was killed by a tree falling upon him. I have neither father nor mother, brothers nor sisters, nor relatives of any kind. There will be no one to care for my orphaned children. Do not take my soul from my body, but spare me so