Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/210

Tales from Tolstoi in the hut were an old woman and some children on the stove. All the others had gone to the fire. The old man lay upon a bench with a taper in his hand, and was looking sideways at the door. When his son came in he shifted a bit. The old woman went to him and told him that his son had come. He bade her call him closer. Ivan went right up to him, and then the old man spoke.

"What did I say to thee, Vanyatko? Who burned the village?"

Twas he, dear little father," said Ivan, "I caught him at it. He was at my place and set fire to the roof. I need only have pulled off a lump of burning straw and put it out, and there would have been no fire at all."

"Ivan," said the old man, "I am nigh unto death, and thou wilt die too. Whose was the sin?"

Ivan looked at his father and was silent; he could not utter a word.

"In God's Name speak! Whose was the sin? What did I tell thee?"

Then only did Ivan wake up and understand everything. He sniffed with his nose and fell down on his knees before his father, burst into tears, and said:

"Mine is the fault, dear little father. Forgive me for Christ's sake! I am guilty both before thee and before God!"

The old man shifted his hands, transferred the taper to his left hand, moved his right hand towards

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