weight, and
thou wilt infallibly perish!"

"But there is no other way of crossing ... and hearest thou the
pursuit?" groaned in desperation the unhappy wight, as he stepped upon
the board.

"I will not permit it!... No, I will not permit thee to perish!"--roared
his zealous friend, snatching the plank from beneath the feet of the
fugitive.--The latter instantly tumbled headlong into the tumultuous
waters--and was drowned.

The enemy smiled with satisfaction, and went his way; but the friend sat
down on the shore and began to weep bitterly over his poor ... poor
friend!

"He would not heed me! He would not heed me!" he whispered dejectedly.

"However!" he said at last. "He would have been obliged to languish all
his life in that frightful prison! At all events, he is not suffering
now! Now he is better off! Evidently, so had his Fate decreed!

"And yet, it is a pity, from a human point of view!"

And the good soul continued to sob inconsolably over his unlucky friend.

December, 1878.

CHRIST

I saw myself as a youth, almost a little boy, in a low-ceiled country
church.--Slender wax tapers burned like red spots in front of the
ancient holy pictures.

An aureole of rainbow hues encircled each tiny flame.--It was dark and
dim in the church.... But a mass of people stood in front of me.

All reddish, peasant heads. From time to time they would begin to surge,
to fall, to rise again, like ripe ears of grain when the summer breeze
flits across them in a slow wave.

Suddenly some man or other stepped from behind and took up his stand
alongside me.

I did not turn toward him, but I immediately felt that that man
was--Christ.

Emotion, curiosity, awe took possession of me simultaneously. I forced
myself to look at my neighbour.

He had a face like that of everybody else,--a face similar to all human
faces. His eyes gazed slightly upward, attentively and gently. His lips
were closed, but not compressed; the upper lip seemed to rest upon the
lower; his small beard was parted in the middle. His hands were clasped,
and did not move. And his garments were like those of every one else.

"Christ, forsooth!" I thought to myself. "Such a simple, simple man! It
cannot be!"

I turned away.--But before I had time to turn my eyes from that simple
man it again seemed to me that it was Christ in person who was standing
beside me.

Again I exerted an effort over myself.... And again I beheld the same
face, re