Page:Leo Tolstoy - Father Sergius and Other Stories and Plays - ed. Charles Theodore Hagberg Wright (1911).djvu/95

 Rh paces from the cave, and Father Sergius remained alone.

The time was long past when Father Sergius lived alone, doing everything for himself, and having but a holy wafer and bread for nourishment. He had been warned long ago that he had no right to be careless of his health, and he was given wholesome meals, although of Lenten quality. He did not eat much, but more than he had done; and sometimes he even felt a pleasure in eating: the disgust and the sense of sin he had experienced before was gone.

He took some gruel, and had a cup of tea with half a roll of white bread. The attendant went away while he remained alone on the bench under the elm tree. It was a beautiful evening in May. The leaves of the birches, the aspens, the elms, the alder bushes, and the oaks were just beginning to blossom. The alder bushes behind the elms were still in full bloom. A nightingale was singing near at hand, and two or three more in the bushes down by the river trilled and warbled. From the river came the songs of working-men, perhaps on their way home from their labours. The sun was setting behind the forest and was throwing little broken rays of light among the leaves. This side was bright green and the other side was dark. Beetles were flying about, and