Page:Leskov - The Sentry and other Stories.djvu/239



HE sternness I had at first shown to Kiriak I now directed on the other monks of my little monastery, in whom, I confess, I did not find the simplicity of Kiriak, nor any good works useful to the faith; they lived, so to speak, as outposts of Christianity, in a heathen land, and yet the lazy beggars did nothing—there was not even one among them who had taken the trouble to learn the language of the natives.

I admonished them, I admonished them privately, and at last thundered at them from the pulpit the words Tzar Ivan addressed to the reverend Guri: "it is vain to call the monks angels—they cannot be compared with angels, nor have they any likeness to them, but they should resemble the Apostles, whom Christ sent to teach and baptize."

Kiriak came the next day to give me a lesson and fell at my feet.

"What is it? What is it?" I asked lifting him up, "worthy teacher it is not seemly that you should bow to the ground before your pupil."