Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/276

Tales from Tolstoi

And Simon and Matrena understood whom it was they had clothed and fed, and who had lived with them, and they wept for fear and joy; and the Angel said:

"I was alone in the open field and naked. Never had I known before the needs of man; never had I known before hunger and cold, and what it is to be a man. I grew more and more hungry; I was freezing, and I knew not what to do. I looked about me; I saw in the field a church made for God; I went to this Church of God; I wanted to shelter myself therein. The church was fastened with bar and bolt; there was no getting into it. I sat me down by the church to be sheltered from the wind. Evening drew nigh. I grew hungry; I was cold also, and racked with pain. All at once I heard a man coming alone. He was carrying boots, and talking to himself And for the first time I saw a deathly human face, besides feeling what it was to be a man; and I had a horror of this face, and turned me away from it. And I heard how this man was talking to himself, and how he asked himself how he was to protect his body against the cold of winter and provide for his wife and children. And I thought to myself, 'Here am I perishing from cold and hunger, and here's a man who only thinks how he is to clothe himself against the winter and provide him and his with bread. He can never help me. The man saw me and was troubled. Then a still greater fear seized him, and he 226