Page:Leo Tolstoi - Life Is Worth Living and Other Stories - tr. Adolphus Norraikow (1892).djvu/142

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Two Old Men.
135

from his old comrade Elissey Bodroff. He could scarcely recognize the place, on account of the evident prosperity that since had visited the people, for when the pilgrims were there together a great famine was upon the land. Now the crops were good and the people were prosperous. They had quite forgotten their past sufferings, and were contented and happy.

It was near sundown when Euthymus reached this point on his journey. As he arrived opposite the house in which Elissey had performed the part of the "good Samaritan," a girl dressed partly in white ran out and shouted:

"Uncle! My dear uncle, come to us!"

Euthymus desired to continue on his way, but the girl, seizing him by his coat, refused to let him do so. She held tightly to him, and after some difficulty succeeded in dragging him toward her home. She was in great glee, and as they approached the house a woman with a baby in her arms came out to welcome the stranger to their humble abode.