Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/261

Rh "Well, Michael, you won't tell us anything about yourself, and that's your business, but one must eat. Work as I tell you and I'll feed you."

"The Lord preserve you. I will learn. Show me what to do."

Simon took a piece of tarred thread, put it round his fingers, and began to twist the ends of it.

Michael looked on, took it in his fingers and began to twist the ends of it in the same way. Then Simon showed him how to weld leather, and Michael understood it at once. Then his host showed him how to sew pieces of leather together, and how to clip them straight, and this also Michael understood at once.

And whatever work Simon showed him he understood it immediately, and after three days he worked as if he had been at it all his life. He worked without blundering and ate but little. He worked without a break, kept silence and always looked upwards. He never went out in the street, never spoke a word too much, and neither laughed or jested.

They had only seen him smile once, and that was on the first evening when the old woman had made ready some supper for him.

Day by day, week by week, the year went round. Michael lived as before at Simon's and worked. And the fame of Simon's workman went forth, and they said that nobody could sew boots together so cleanly and so strongly as Simon's workman Michael. They 211