Page:Leo Tolstoi - Life Is Worth Living and Other Stories - tr. Adolphus Norraikow (1892).djvu/22

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Life is Worth Living.
15

enough to pay for a drink. 'What need have you of money?' he says. He needs money, but asks of what use it is to me! He owns a house and cattle and has everything he wants. But what have I? Nothing but the clothes which I have on. He makes his own bread, but I have to buy mine. It costs me three rubles every week. When I get home all the bread will be gone, and I will have to pay out a ruble and a half for more. Let him return me what he owes me."

Thus talking to himself, Simeon reached a turn in the road, near which stood a chapel. As he glanced toward the rear of the building he thought he saw some white object moving. Owing to the darkness he was unable to distinguish what it was. What could it be? He had passed that way many times before, but he could not remember having seen a tombstone there. Then he thought that perhaps it was a cow which had gone in there to graze. But still, on looking again, he decided that it