Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/216

Tales from Tolstoi "The bee-swarms will be good this year; thou wilt repent it."

"Repent it! Nay, gossip, in this life I repent of nothing but my sins. There is nothing dearer than one's soul."

"That's right enough, but for all that disorder at home is no good thing."

"But if there be disorder in our souls, that is worse. But we have vowed—we must go; it is only right to go."

And Elisyei persuaded his comrade.

Efim turned the matter over and over in his mind, and in the morning he went to Elisyei.

"Come, let us go," said he, "thou art right. God's will be done in life and death. We ought to go while we are strong and hale."

In a week the old men got them ready.

Tarasuich had money at home. He took 190 roubles (£19) for his journey, and left 200 roubles (£20) with his old woman. Elisyei also got ready. He sold his neighbour ten prize bee-hives, with all the swarms that they might produce, and got 70 roubles (£7) for the lot. The remaining 30 roubles (£3) he scraped together at home by hook and by crook; his old woman gave up her savings, which she had saved up against her burial, to the last penny, and his daughter-in-law gave him her savings also.

Efim Tarasuich gave his eldest son directions as 166