Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/231

Rh self after Efim; but towards home, with God's help, it was so easy that he felt no weariness at all. On he went right heartily, swinging his staff, and he went at the rate of seventy versts a day.

Elisyei got home. They gathered about him in the fields. Those at home rejoiced to see their old man. They began to ask him questions, they asked him this and that, why he had quitted his comrade, why he had not gone the whole way, why he had returned home. Elisyei did not satisfy them.

"It was not God's will," said he, "I lost my money on the road, and parted from my comrade. That's how I did not go. Forgive me, for Christ's sake."

And he gave his old woman the remainder of the money. Elisyei asked about household affairs. Everything was well, they had done all it behoved them to do, there was no waste in the housekeeping, and they had all lived in peace and harmony.

The same day those of Efim's household heard of Elisyei's return, and they came to ask about their old man. And to them also Elisyei said the same thing.

"Your old man," said he, "fared a-field in good health. We parted," said he, "three days before the Feast of Peter, then I wanted to catch him up again, but all sorts of things came in the way. Then I lost my money and had nothing to go on with, so I turned back."

The people were amazed. Such a wise man, and to do such a stupid thing. He set out and never arrived, but only lost his money! They wondered, and forgot all about it. And Elisyei forgot about it 181