And s.e.m.e.n marvelled at Mikhayla. Indeed, the girls were pretty: black-eyed, chubby, ruddy-faced, and the fur coats and shawls which they had on were fine; but still s.e.m.e.n could not make out why he was gazing at them as though they were friends of his.

s.e.m.e.n marvelled, and began to talk with the woman and to bargain. They came to an agreement, and he took the measures. The woman took the lame girl on her knees, and said:

"For this girl take two measures: make one shoe for the lame foot, and three for the sound foot. They have the same size of feet, exactly alike. They are twins."

s.e.m.e.n took the measure, and he said about the lame girl:

"What has made her lame? She is such a pretty girl. Was she born this way?"

"No, her mother crushed her."

Matrena broke in,--she wanted to know who the woman was, and whose the children were, and so she said:

"Are you not their mother?"

"I am not their mother, nor their kin, housewife! I am a stranger to them: I have adopted them."

"Not your children! How you care for them!"

"Why should I not care for them? I nursed them with my own breast. I had a child of my own, but G.o.d took him away. I did not care for him so much as I have cared for them."

"Whose are they, then?"

IX.

The woman began to talk, and said:

"It was six years ago that these orphans lost their parents in one week: their father was buried on a Tuesday, and their mother died on Friday.

These orphans were born three days after their father's death, and their mother did not live a day. At that time I was living with my husband in the village. We were their neighbours, our yard joining theirs. Their father was a lonely man; he worked in the forest. They dropped a tree on him, and it fell across his body and squeezed out his entrails. They had barely brought him home, when he gave up his soul to G.o.d, and that same week his wife bore twins,--these girls. The woman was poor and alone; she had neither old woman nor girl with her.

"Alone she bore them, and alone she died.

"I went in the morning to see my neighbour, but she, the dear woman, was already cold. As she died she fell on the girl, and wrenched her leg.

The people came, and they washed and dressed her, and made a coffin, and buried her. All of them were good people. The girls were left alone.

What was to be done with them? Of all the women I alone had a baby. I had been nursing my first-born boy for eight weeks. I took them for the time being to my house. The peasants gathered and thought and thought what to do with them, and they said to me: 'Marya, keep the girls awhile, and we will try and think what to do with them.' And I nursed the straight girl once, but the lame girl I would not nurse. I did not want her to live. But, I thought, why should the angelic soul go out, and so I pitied her, too. I began to nurse her, and so I raised my own and the two girls, all three of them with my own b.r.e.a.s.t.s. I was young and strong, and I had good food. And G.o.d gave me so much milk in my b.r.e.a.s.t.s that at times they overflowed. I would feed two of them, while the third would be waiting. When one rolled away, I took the third. And G.o.d granted that I should raise the three, but my own child I lost in the second year. And G.o.d has given me no other children. We began to earn more and more, and now we are living here with the merchant at the mill. The wages are big, and our living is good. I have no children, and how should I live if it were not for these girls? How can I help loving them? They are all the wax of my tapers that I have."

With one hand the woman pressed the lame girl to her side, and with the other she began to wipe off her tears.

And Matrena sighed, and said:

"Not in vain is the proverb: 'You can live without parents, but not without G.o.d.'"

And so they were talking among themselves, when suddenly the room was lighted as though by sheet lightning from the corner where sat Mikhayla.

All looked at him, and they saw Mikhayla sitting with folded hands on his knees, and looking up, and smiling.

X.

The woman went away with the girls, and Mikhayla got up from his bench.

He lay down his work, took off his ap.r.o.n, bowed to the master and to the housewife, and said:

"Forgive me, people! G.o.d has forgiven me. You, too, should forgive me."

And the master and his wife saw a light coming from Mikhayla. And s.e.m.e.n got up, and bowed to Mikhayla, and said:

"I see, Mikhayla, you are not a simple man, and I cannot keep you, and must not beg you to remain. But tell me this: Why, when I found you and brought you home, were you gloomy, and when my wife gave you a supper, why did you smile at her and after that grow brighter? Later, when the gentleman ordered the boots, you smiled for the second time, and after that grew brighter, and now, when the woman brought her girls, you smiled for the third time, and grew entirely bright. Tell me, Mikhayla, why does such light come from you, and why did you smile three times?"

And Mikhayla said:

"The light comes from me, because I had been punished, and now G.o.d has forgiven me. And I smiled three times because I had to learn three words of G.o.d. And I have learned the three words: one word I learned when your wife took pity on me, and so I smiled for the first time. The second word I learned when the rich man ordered the boots, and then I smiled for the second time. And now, when I saw the girls, I learned the last, the third word, and I smiled for the third time."

And s.e.m.e.n said:

"Tell me, Mikhayla, for what did G.o.d punish you, and what are those words of G.o.d, that I may know them."

And Mikhayla said:

"G.o.d punished me for having disobeyed him. I was an angel in heaven, and I disobeyed G.o.d. I was an angel in heaven, and G.o.d sent me down to take the soul out of a woman. I flew down to the earth, and I saw the woman lying sick, and she had borne twins,--two girls. The girls were squirming near their mother, and she could not take them to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

The woman saw me, and she knew that G.o.d had sent me for her soul. She wept, and said: 'Angel of G.o.d! My husband has just been buried,--he was killed by a tree in the forest. I have neither sister, nor aunt, nor granny,--there is no one to bring up my orphans, so do not take my soul!

Let me raise my own children, and put them on their feet. Children cannot live without a father, without a mother.' And I listened to the mother, and placed one girl to her breast, and gave the other one into her hands, and rose up to the Lord in heaven. And I came before the Lord, and said: 'I cannot take the soul out of the mother in childbirth.

The father was killed by a tree, the mother bore twins, and she begged me not to take the soul out of her, saying, Let me rear and bring up my children, and put them on their feet. Children cannot live without a father or mother. I did not take the soul out of the woman in childbirth.' And the Lord said: 'Go and take the soul out of the woman in childbirth! And you will learn three words: you will learn what there is in men, and what is not given to men, and what men live by. When you learn them, you will return to heaven.' I flew back to earth and took the soul out of the woman.

"The little ones fell away from the b.r.e.a.s.t.s. The dead body rolled over on the bed and crushed one of the girls, and wrenched her leg. I rose above the village and wanted to take the soul to G.o.d; but the wind caught me, and my wings fell flat; and dropped off, and the soul went by itself before G.o.d, and I fell near the road on the earth."

XI.

And s.e.m.e.n and Matrena understood whom they had clothed and fed, and who had lived with them, and they wept for terror and for joy, and said the angel:

"I was left all alone in the field, and naked. I had not known before of human wants, neither of cold, nor of hunger, and I became a man. I was starved and chilled and did not know what to do. I saw in the field a chapel made for the Lord, and I went to G.o.d's chapel and wanted to hide myself in it. The chapel was locked, and I could not get in. And I seated myself behind the chapel, to protect myself against the wind. The evening came, I was hungry and chilled, and I ached all over. Suddenly I heard a man walking on the road; he was carrying a pair of boots and talking to himself. And I saw a mortal face, for the first time since I had become a man, and that face was terrible to me, and I turned away from it. And I heard the man talking to himself about how he might cover his body in the winter from the cold, and how he might feed his wife and children. And I thought: 'I am dying from hunger and cold, and here comes a man, who is thinking only of how to cover himself and his wife with a fur coat, and of how to feed his family. He cannot help me.' The man saw me; he frowned, and looked gloomier still, and pa.s.sed by me. And I was in despair. Suddenly I heard the man coming back. I looked at him and did not recognize him: before that death had been in his face, and now he was revived, and in his face I saw G.o.d. He came up to me, and clothed me, and took me with him, and led me to his house. I came to his house, and a woman came out of the house and began to talk. The woman was more terrible yet than the man; the dead spirit was coming out of her mouth, and I could not breathe from the stench of death. She wanted to send me out into the cold, and I knew that she would die if she drove me out. And suddenly her husband reminded her of G.o.d. And the woman suddenly changed. And when she gave us to eat, and looked at us, I glanced at her: there was no longer death in her,--she was alive, and I recognized G.o.d in her.

"And I recalled G.o.d's first word: 'You will know what there is in men.'

And I learned that there was love in men. And I rejoiced at it, because G.o.d had begun to reveal to me what He had promised, and I smiled for the first time. But I could not yet learn everything. I could not understand what was not given to men, and what men lived by.

"I began to live with you, and lived a year, and there came a man, to order a pair of boots, such as would wear a year, without ripping or turning. I looked at him, and suddenly I saw behind his shoulder my companion, the angel of death. None but me saw that angel; but I knew him, and I knew that the sun would not go down before the rich man's soul would be taken away. And I thought: 'The man is providing for a year, and does not know that he will not live until evening.' And I thought of G.o.d's second word: 'You will learn what is not given to men.'

"I knew already what there was in men. Now I learned what was not given to men. It is not given men to know what they need for their bodies. And I smiled for the second time. I was glad because I had seen my comrade the angel, and because G.o.d had revealed the second word to me.

"But I could not understand everything. I could not understand what men lived by. And I lived and waited for G.o.d to reveal to me the last word.

And in the sixth year came the twin girls with the woman, and I recognized the girls and knew how they were kept alive. I recognized them, and I thought: 'The mother begged me for the sake of the children, and I believed the mother and thought that the children could not live without father and mother, and yet a strange woman has fed them and reared them.' And when the woman was touched as she looked at the children and wept, I saw in her the living G.o.d, and I understood what men lived by. And I learned that G.o.d had revealed the third word to me and forgave me. And I smiled for the third time."

XII.

And the angel's body was bared and clothed in light, so that the eye could not behold him, and he spoke louder, as though the voice were coming not from him but from heaven. And the angel said:

"I have learned that every man lives not by the care for himself, but by love.