Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/301

Rh he had gone a-fishing, and how he had come to this very island, not knowing where he was. In the morning he took a walk about and came upon a hut made of earth, and by this hut of earth he saw ah old man, and afterwards two others came out, and they gave him to eat, and dried his clothes, and helped him to mend his boat.

"And what are they like in themselves?" asked the Archbishop.

"One of them is very little, and bent double, and old—very old; he wears a ragged little hood: he must needs be over a hundred, for the grey in his beard is already beginning to show green. But he himself is always smiling, and he is as bright as a heavenly angel. The second of the three is taller. He also is old and wears a torn kaftan; his beard is broad and grey, with a yellowish tinge, but the man himself is strong. He turned my boat about like a tub; I was unable to help him, so quick and lusty was he. But the third of them was very tall, his beard was long, reaching to his knee, and as white as the mouse-hawk's wing, but he himself was dark-looking, his brows hung over his eyes; all naked, too, was he, save for the leather girdle about his loins."

"And what said they to thee?" asked the Archbishop.

"They did everything rather in silence, and spoke but little one to another. One had but to give a look and the others understood him. I asked the tall one if they had lived there long. Then he frowned, began to say something, and got so angry, that the ancient caught him by the arm and smiled 251