"We shall have to wait," he said, "for this is a hard year for me. I have started to build a house,--I thought I could do it with one hundred, but it is going on now in the third. And still it is not done. We shall have to let it go till summer. In the summer, God willing, we shall go by all means." "According to my understanding," said Eliséy, "there is no sense in delaying. We ought to go at once. Spring is the best time." "The time is all right, but the work is begun, so how can I drop it?" "Have you nobody to attend to it? Your son will do it." "Do it? My eldest is not reliable,--he drinks." "When we die, friend, they will get along without us. Let your son learn it!" "That is so, but still I want to see things done under my eyes." "Oh, dear man! You can never attend to everything. The other day the women in my house were washing and cleaning up for the holidays. This and that had to be done, and everything could not be looked after. My eldest daughter-in-law, a clever woman, said: 'It is a lucky thing the holidays come without waiting for us, for else, no matter how much we might work, we should never get done.'" Tarásych fell to musing. "I have spent a great deal of money on this building," he said, "and I can't start out on the pilgrimage with empty hands. One hundred roubles are not a trifling matter." Eliséy laughed. "Don't sin, friend!" he said. "You have ten times as much as I, and yet you talk about money. Only say when we shall start. I have no money, but that will be all right." Tarásych smiled. "What a rich man you are!" he said. "Where shall you get the money from?" "I will scratch around in the house and will get together some there; and if that is not enough, I will let my neighbour have ten hives. He has been asking me for them." "You will have a fine swarm! You will be worrying about it." "Worrying? No, my friend! I have never worried about anything in life but sins. There is nothing more precious than the soul." "That is so; but still, it is not good if things do not run right at home." "If things do not run right in our soul, it is worse. We have made a vow, so let us go! Truly, let us go!" II. Eliséy persuaded his friend to go. Efím thought and thought about it, and on the following morning he came to Eliséy. "Well, let us go," he said, "you have spoken rightly. God controls life and death. We must go while we are alive and have strength." A week later the old men started. Tarásych had money at home. He took one hundred roubles with him and left two hundred with his wife. Eliséy, too, got ready. He sold his neighbour ten hives and the increase of ten other hives. For the whole he received seventy roubles. The remaining thirty roubles he swept up from everybody in the house. His wife gave him the last she had,--she had put it away for her funeral; his daughter-in-law gave him what she had.