Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/317

Rh He shook the door, he picked off the seal, and entered. The godson entered, and he beheld a pavilion larger and better than all he had seen before, and in the midst of the pavilion stood a golden throne. The godson went up and down the rooms of the pavilion; he approached the throne, mounted the steps, and sat down. Then the godson perceived a sceptre on the throne, and he stretched out his hand and seized the sceptre. And no sooner had he taken the sceptre than all four walls of the pavilion rolled away, and the godson looked around him and beheld the whole world, and all that people in the world are wont to do. He looked straight before him, and he saw the sea with ships sailing upon it. He looked to the right, and he saw strange unchristian nations dwelling there; he looked to the left, and there dwelt those Christians who were not Russians; then he looked to the fourth side, and there our Russian nation dwelt.

"I should like," cried he, "to see what is going on at home, and whether our crops are good." Then he saw his own fields and the sheaves standing upright within them. He began counting the sheaves to see if they were many, and then he saw a telyega driving across the fields, and in it sat a peasant. The godson thought it was his father going to gather together his sheaves at night, but on looking again, he perceived that it was the thief Vasily Kudryashov who was driving. He came up to the sheaves and began to put them in his cart. At this the godson

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