Christian fiction; Shoemakers -- Fiction; Short stories; Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910 -- Translations into English
"It must be time to make a light," he said to himself; so he got his
little lamp ready, hung it up, and he took himself again to his work. He
had one boot already finished; he turned it around, looked at it: "Well
done." He put away his tools, swept off the cuttings, cleared off the
bristles and ends, took the lamp, set it on the table, and took down the
Gospels from the shelf. He intended to open the book at the very place
where he had yesterday put a piece of leather as a mark, but it happened
to open at another place; and the moment Avdyeitch opened the Testament,
he recollected his last night's dream. And as soon as he remembered it,
it seemed as if he heard someone stepping about behind him. Avdyeitch
looked around, and saw--there, in the dark corner, it seemed as if
people were standing; he was at a loss to know who they were. And a
voice whispered in his ear:--
"Martuin--ah, Martuin! did you not recognize me?"
"Who?" exclaimed Avdyeitch.
"Me," repeated the voice. "It was I;" and Stepanuitch stepped forth from
the dark corner; he smiled, and like a little cloud faded away, and soon
vanished.
"And it was I," said the voice.
From the dark corner stepped forth the woman with her child; the woman
smiled, the child laughed, and they also vanished,
"And it was I," continued the voice; both the old woman and the boy with
the apple stepped forward; both smiled and vanished.
Avdyeitch's soul rejoiced; he crossed himself, put on his spectacles,
and began to read the Evangelists where it happened to open. On the
upper part of the page he read:--
"_For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave
me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in._"
And on the lower part of the page he read this:--
"_Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my
brethren, ye have done it unto me._"--St. Matthew, Chap. xxv.
And Avdyeitch understood that his dream had not deceived him; that the
Saviour really called on him that day, and that he really received Him.
End of Project Gutenberg's Where Love Is There God Is Also, by Lyof N. Tolstoi
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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