Page:Leskov - The Sentry and other Stories.djvu/233

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.


On the Edge of the World
217

in order to change my tone towards him I said:

"So what you are suspected of is not true, You have not seen any miracles?"

But he answered:

"Why should it not be true, Vladyko?"

"How so? Then you have seen miracles?"

"Who has not seen miracles, Vladyko?"

"Yet . . . ."

"Why 'yet'? Wherever you look there are miracles—there is water in the clouds, the earth is borne up by the air like a feather; here we are, you and I—dust and ashes—but we move about and think; that is also a miracle to me; we shall die and turn to dust, but our soul will go to Him who has placed it in us. It is a miracle to me that it will go naked, without anything? Who will give it wings to fly away like a dove and rest there?"

"Well, we will leave that for others to discuss; but answer me quite plainly. Have you ever in your life had any unusual manifestations or anything else of that nature?"

"In a measure, I have."

"Well, what were they?"

"Vladyko," he replied, "from my childhood I have been greatly favoured by the grace of God and though unworthy, I was twice the object of wonderful interventions."