read to me, or I read to him. We
were now also able to travel by day instead of by night, as he was able
to conduct me by byways where we were not likely to meet any one to
interrupt us. At length we reached the abode of brother Sidor. He was
a grey-headed old man, and from sad experience had learned caution. We
knocked three times at his door before he opened it. When he had done
so he did not speak, but stood in the porch, examining us from head to
foot. This scrutiny was apparently satisfactory. `Come in and sit
down,' said he, at the same time placing fish, and bread, and cheese,
and milk before us. `There, eat; when you have satisfied your hunger, I
will hear what you wish to tell me.' We gladly did as he desired, and
when we had satisfied our hunger, I frankly told him all my history, and
the object of my journey. `Ah, my son! I knew your father, Loutich
Saveleff, very well, in my youth. We were fellow-servants together at
Petersburg, in the establishment of Count Paul Illarionovitch. He kept
up a great state, and gave great parties, and made us wear magnificent
liveries, and we thought ourselves very fine fellows. When he died we
could not procure other situations, and as we had saved nothing and
could not pay our masters the tax, we were compelled to return to our
native villages and to resume our labours in the field. This at first
we thought very hard work, and grumbled at it exceedingly, but we could
not help ourselves, and what at first we fancied a curse proved a
blessing in the end. By that means the blessed light of gospel truth
was made to shine on us. Your father was the first to receive it, and
having procured two Bibles he sent me one of them, as the richest gift
he could bestow. At first I valued it only as a gift from him, for I
loved him much; and that he knew, or he would not have ventured to send
it to me. I, however, began to read, and as I read on I learned to
value it for itself, and would not now change it for all the wealth of
the Czar. What, I often ask myself, would the world be without it?
What can for a moment be compared to it? How dark, how gloomy would our
life appear! How unjust, how unmerciful the Creator of the universe!
No guide for the present; no certainty, no hope for the future. It
teaches us all we should wish for, all we should desire to know; how to
walk in this present life, how to bear affliction, what to expect in the
future.' Much more to the same