Page:The way of Martha and the way of Mary (1915).djvu/146

124 monastery away in the woods. There is a shrine there now. You'll see the stone, too, on which he prayed a thousand days and a thousand nights without moving away. And the spring that he found. Many people have been cured there. It's quite unusual water. Will you bathe?"

"Perhaps," said I. "But the weather's cold."

"No one ever takes cold there," said the peasant. "It's quite safe. The water is very very cold. But there's something about it. You take it home, it doesn't go bad like ordinary water."

"He was a great saint, this Father Seraphim!"

"Of course; he was a God-serviceable man, he did many podvigs."

When we arrived at the monastery in the holy wood we were accommodated in a cell, and a novice brought in the samovar at once. No passports were required, no charge was made. We found at the monastery some two or three hundred other pilgrims, most of whom had been there several days. A pleasant collection of churches, hostelries, little shops, and work-sheds set on a fair hill among ancient pines, a peaceful shelter and sanctuary after the wild weather and desolation of the moors. We wandered about the buildings in the dusk, listened to the antique chimes, and then returned to sleep a few hours before the midnight bell to the first service of the morrow. About one in the morning we left our cells and all muffled up and mysterious followed other pilgrims across the soft new snow