Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/319

Rh ill deed thou didst when thou didst mount the throne and take my sceptre into thy hand; and a third ill deed thou didst in adding much evil to the evil that is in the world already. If thou hadst sat on the throne another moment, thou wouldst have been the ruin of half the people of the earth."

Then the godfather again placed the godson on the throne, and put the sceptre into his hand, and again the walls of the pavilion parted asunder, and they saw all things.

And the godfather said, "Look now, what thou hast done to thy father. Vasily has sat for a year in jail, and he has become the pupil of all manner of malefactors, and is now more wicked than them all. Look! he is now driving away two of thy father's horses, and thou seest that his farm is in flames also. That is what thou hast done to thy father."

Then the godson perceived that his father's house was on fire; but his godfather hid it from him, and pointed to something lower down, and the godson saw the robber, and two guards were holding him before a dungeon. And the godfather said to him, "This man had slain nine souls. It had become necessary for him to redeem his sins, but you have killed him, so that you have taken all his sins upon yourself. Now you have to answer for all his sins. That is what you have done to yourself. The she-bear struck the block once and it hurt the little bears; she struck it twice and it killed the one-year-old cub; she struck it a third time, and it slew herself. Thou hast now done the same thing. I now give thee a respite of thirty years. Go into the world 269