God Sees The Truth But Does Not Tell At Once
: STORIES FOR CHILDREN: Fables For Children, Stories For Children, Natural Science Stori
In the city of Vladimir there lived a young merchant, Aksenov by name.
He had two shops and a house.
Aksenov was a light-complexioned, curly-headed, fine-looking man and a
very jolly fellow and good singer. In his youth Aksenov had drunk much,
and when he was drunk he used to become riotous, but when he married he
gave up drinking, and that now happened very rarely with him.
One day in the s
bade his family good-bye, his wife said to him:
"Ivan Dmitrievich, do not start to-day! I have had a bad dream about
you."
Aksenov laughed, and said:
"Are you afraid that I might go on a spree at the fair?"
His wife said:
"I do not know what I am afraid of, but I had a bad dream: I dreamed
that you came to town, and when you took off your cap I saw that your
head was all gray."
Aksenov laughed.
"That means that I shall make some profit. If I strike a good bargain,
you will see me bring you some costly presents."
And he bade his family farewell, and started.
In the middle of his journey he met a merchant whom he knew, and they
stopped together in a hostelry for the night. They drank their tea
together, and lay down to sleep in two adjoining rooms. Aksenov did not
like to sleep long; he awoke in the middle of the night and, as it was
easier to travel when it was cool, wakened his driver and told him to
hitch the horses. Then he went to the "black" hut, paid his bill, and
went away.
When he had gone about forty versts, he again stopped to feed the horses
and to rest in the vestibule of a hostelry. At dinner-time he came out
on the porch, and ordered the samovar to be prepared for him. He took
out his guitar and began to play. Suddenly a troyka with bells drove up
to the hostelry, and from the cart leaped an officer with two soldiers,
and he went up to Aksenov, and asked him who he was and where he came
from.
Aksenov told him everything as it was, and said:
"Would you not like to drink tea with me?"
But the officer kept asking him questions:
"Where did you stay last night? Were you alone, or with a merchant? Did
you see the merchant in the morning? Why did you leave so early in the
morning?"
Aksenov wondered why they asked him about all that; he told them
everything as it was, and said:
"Why do you ask me this? I am not a thief, nor a robber. I am travelling
on business of my own, and you have nothing to ask me about."
Then the officer called the soldiers, and said:
"I am the chief of the rural police, and I ask you this, because the
merchant with whom you passed last night has been found with his throat
cut. Show me your things, and you look through them!"
They entered the house, took his valise and bag, and opened them and
began to look through them. Suddenly the chief took a knife out of the
bag, and cried out:
"Whose knife is this?"
Aksenov looked, and saw that they had taken out a blood-stained knife
from his bag, and he was frightened "How did the blood get on the
knife?"
Aksenov wanted to answer, but could not pronounce a word.
"I--I do not know--I--the knife--is not mine!"
Then the chief said:
"In the morning the merchant was found in his bed with his throat cut.
No one but you could have done it. The house was locked from within, and
there was no one in the house but you. Here is the bloody knife in your
bag, and your face shows your guilt. Tell me, how did you kill him, and
how much money did you rob him of?"
Aksenov swore that he had not done it; that he had not seen the merchant
after drinking tea with him; that he had with him his own eight
thousand; that the knife was not his. But his voice faltered, his face
was pale, and he trembled from fear, as though he were guilty.
The chief called in the soldiers, told them to bind him and to take him
to the cart. When he was rolled into the cart with his legs tied, he
made the sign of the cross and began to cry. They took away his money
and things, and sent him to jail to the nearest town. They sent to
Vladimir to find out what kind of a man Aksenov was, and all the
merchants and inhabitants of Vladimir testified to the fact that Aksenov
had drunk and caroused when he was young, but that he was a good man.
Then they began to try him. He was tried for having killed the Ryazan
merchant and having robbed him of twenty thousand roubles.
The wife was grieving for her husband and did not know what to think.
Her children were still young, and one was still at the breast. She took
them all and went with them to the town where her husband was kept in
prison. At first she was not admitted, but later she implored the
authorities, and she was taken to her husband. When she saw him in
prison garb and in chains, together with murderers, she fell to the
ground and could not come to for a long time. Then she placed her
children about her, sat down beside him, and began to tell him about
house matters, and to ask him about everything which had happened. He
told her everything. She said:
"What shall I do?"
He said:
"We must petition the Tsar. An innocent man cannot be allowed to
perish."
His wife said that she had already petitioned the Tsar, but that the
petition had not reached him. Aksenov said nothing, and only lowered his
head. Then his wife said:
"You remember the dream I had about your getting gray. Indeed, you have
grown gray from sorrow. If you had only not started then!"
And she looked over his hair, and said:
"Ivan, my darling, tell your wife the truth: did you not do it?"
Aksenov said, "And you, too, suspect me!" and covered his face with his
hands, and began to weep.
Then a soldier came, and told his wife that she must leave with her
children. And Aksenov for the last time bade his family farewell.
When his wife had left, Aksenov thought about what they had been talking
of. When he recalled that his wife had also suspected him and had asked
him whether he had killed the merchant, he said to himself: "Evidently
none but God can know the truth, and He alone must be asked, and from
Him alone can I expect mercy." And from that time on Aksenov no longer
handed in petitions and stopped hoping, but only prayed to God.
Aksenov was sentenced to be beaten with the knout, and to be sent to
hard labour. And it was done.
He was beaten with the knout, and later, when the knout sores healed
over, he was driven with other convicts to Siberia.
In Siberia, Aksenov passed twenty-six years at hard labour. His hair
turned white like snow, and his beard grew long, narrow, and gray. All
his mirth went away. He stooped, began to walk softly, spoke little,
never laughed, and frequently prayed to God.
In the prison Aksenov learned to make boots, and with the money which he
earned he bought himself the "Legends of the Holy Martyrs," and read
them while it was light in the prison; on holidays he went to the prison
church and read the Epistles, and sang in the choir,--his voice was
still good. The authorities were fond of Aksenov for his gentleness, and
his prison comrades respected him and called him "grandfather" and
"God's man." When there were any requests to be made of the authorities,
his comrades always sent him to speak for them, and when the convicts
had any disputes between themselves, they came to Aksenov to settle
them.
No one wrote Aksenov letters from his home, and he did not know whether
his wife and children were alive, or not.
Once they brought some new prisoners to the prison. In the evening the
old prisoners gathered around the new men, and asked them from what town
they came, or from what village, and for what acts they had been sent
up. Aksenov, too, sat down on the bed-boards near the new prisoners and,
lowering his head, listened to what they were saying. One of the new
prisoners was a tall, sound-looking old man of about sixty years of age,
with a gray, clipped beard. He was telling them what he had been sent up
for:
"Yes, brothers, I have come here for no crime at all. I had unhitched a
driver's horse from the sleigh. I was caught. They said, 'You stole it.'
And I said, 'I only wanted to get home quickly, for I let the horse go.
Besides, the driver is a friend of mine. I am telling you the
truth.'--'No,' they said, 'you have stolen it.' But they did not know
what I had been stealing, or where I had been stealing. There were
crimes for which I ought to have been sent up long ago, but they could
not convict me, and now I am here contrary to the law. 'You are
lying,--you have been in Siberia, but you did not make a long visit
there--'"
"Where do you come from?" asked one of the prisoners.
"I am from the city of Vladimir, a burgher of that place. My name is
Makar, and by my father Semenovich."
Aksenov raised his head, and asked:
"Semenovich, have you not heard in Vladimir about the family of Merchant
Aksenov? Are they alive?"
"Yes, I have heard about them! They are rich merchants, even though
their father is in Siberia. He is as much a sinner as I, I think. And
you, grandfather, what are you here for?"
Aksenov did not like to talk of his misfortune. He sighed, and said:
"For my sins have I passed twenty-six years at hard labour."
Makar Semenovich said:
"For what sins?"
Aksenov said, "No doubt, I deserved it," and did not wish to tell him
any more; but the other prison people told the new man how Aksenov had
come to be in Siberia. They told him how on the road some one had killed
a merchant and had put the knife into his bag, and he thus was sentenced
though he was innocent.
When Makar Semenovich heard that, he looked at Aksenov, clapped his
knees with his hands, and said:
"What a marvel! What a marvel! But you have grown old, grandfather!"
He was asked what he was marvelling at, and where he had seen Aksenov,
but Makar Semenovich made no reply, and only said:
"It is wonderful, boys, where we were fated to meet!"
And these words made Aksenov think that this man might know something
about who had killed the merchant. He said:
"Semenovich, have you heard before this about that matter, or have we
met before?"
"Of course I have heard. The earth is full of rumours. That happened a
long time ago: I have forgotten what I heard," said Makar Semenovich.
"Maybe you have heard who killed the merchant?" asked Aksenov.
Makar Semenovich laughed and said:
"I suppose he was killed by the man in whose bag the knife was found.
Even if somebody stuck that knife into that bag, he was not caught, so
he is no thief. And how could the knife have been put in? Was not the
bag under your head? You would have heard him."
The moment Aksenov heard these words, he thought that that was the man
who had killed the merchant. He got up and walked away. All that night
Aksenov could not fall asleep. He felt sad, and had visions: now he saw
his wife such as she had been when she bade him farewell for the last
time, as he went to the fair. He saw her, as though she was alive, and
he saw her face and eyes, and heard her speak to him and laugh. Then he
saw his children such as they had been then,--just as little,--one of
them in a fur coat, the other at the breast. And he thought of himself,
such as he had been then,--gay and young; he recalled how he had been
sitting on the porch of the hostelry, where he was arrested, and had
been playing the guitar, and how light his heart had been then. And he
recalled the pillory, where he had been whipped, and the executioner,
and the people all around, and the chains, and the prisoners, and his
prison life of the last twenty-six years, and his old age. And such
gloom came over him that he felt like laying hands on himself.
"And all that on account of that evil-doer!" thought Aksenov.
And such a rage fell upon him against Makar Semenovich, that he wanted
to have his revenge upon him, even if he himself were to be ruined by
it. He said his prayers all night long, but could not calm himself. In
the daytime he did not walk over to Makar Semenovich, and did not look
at him.
Thus two weeks passed. At night Aksenov could not sleep, and he felt so
sad that he did not know what to do with himself.
Once, in the night, he walked all over the prison, and saw dirt falling
from underneath one bedplace. He stopped to see what it was. Suddenly
Makar Semenovich jumped up from under the bed and looked at Aksenov with
a frightened face. Aksenov wanted to pass on, so as not to see him; but
Makar took him by his arm, and told him that he had dug a passage way
under the wall, and that he each day carried the dirt away in his
boot-legs and poured it out in the open, whenever they took the convicts
out to work. He said:
"Keep quiet, old man,--I will take you out, too. And if you tell, they
will whip me, and I will not forgive you,--I will kill you."
When Aksenov saw the one who had done him evil, he trembled in his rage,
and pulled away his arm, and said:
"I have no reason to get away from here, and there is no sense in
killing me,--you killed me long ago. And whether I will tell on you or
not depends on what God will put into my soul."
On the following day, when the convicts were taken out to work, the
soldiers noticed that Makar Semenovich was pouring out the dirt, and so
they began to search in the prison, and found the hole. The chief came
to the prison and began to ask all who had dug the hole. Everybody
denied it. Those who knew had not seen Makar Semenovich, because they
knew that for this act he would be whipped half-dead. Then the chief
turned to Aksenov. He knew that Aksenov was a just man, and said:
"Old man, you are a truthful man, tell me before God who has done that."
Makar Semenovich stood as though nothing had happened and looked at the
chief, and did not glance at Aksenov. Aksenov's arms and lips trembled,
and he could not utter a word for long time. He thought: "If I protect
him, why should I forgive him, since he has ruined me? Let him suffer
for my torments! And if I tell on him, they will indeed whip him to
death. And suppose that I have a wrong suspicion against him. Will that
make it easier for me?"
The chief said once more:
"Well, old man, speak, tell the truth! Who has been digging it?"
Aksenov looked at Makar Semenovich, and said:
"I cannot tell, your Honour. God orders me not to tell. And I will not
tell. Do with me as you please,--you have the power."
No matter how much the chief tried, Aksenov would not say anything more.
And so they did not find out who had done the digging.
On the following night, as Aksenov lay down on the bed-boards and was
just falling asleep, he heard somebody come up to him and sit down at
his feet. He looked in the darkness and recognized Makar. Aksenov said:
"What more do you want of me? What are you doing here?"
Makar Semenovich was silent. Aksenov raised himself, and said:
"What do you want? Go away, or I will call the soldier."
Makar bent down close to Aksenov, and said to him in a whisper:
Photogravure from Painting by A. Kivshenko]
"Ivan Dmitrievich, forgive me!"
Aksenov said:
"For what shall I forgive you?"
"It was I who killed the merchant and put the knife into your bag. I
wanted to kill you, too, but they made a noise in the yard, so I put the
knife into your bag and climbed through the window."
Aksenov was silent and did not know what to say. Makar Semenovich
slipped down from the bed, made a low obeisance, and said:
"Ivan Dmitrievich, forgive me, forgive me for God's sake! I will declare
that it was I who killed the merchant,--you will be forgiven. You will
return home."
Aksenov said:
"It is easy for you to speak so, but see how I have suffered! Where
shall I go now? My wife has died, my children have forgotten me. I have
no place to go to--"
Makar Semenovich did not get up from the floor. He struck his head
against the earth, and said:
"Ivan Dmitrievich, forgive me! When they whipped me with the knout I
felt better than now that I am looking at you. You pitied me, and did
not tell on me. Forgive me, for Christ's sake! Forgive me, the accursed
evil-doer!" And he burst out into tears.
When Aksenov heard Makar Semenovich crying, he began to weep himself,
and said:
"God will forgive you. Maybe I am a hundred times worse than you!"
And suddenly a load fell off from his soul. And he no longer pined for
his home, and did not wish to leave the prison, but only thought of his
last hour.
Makar Semenovich did not listen to Aksenov, but declared his guilt. When
the decision came for Aksenov to leave,--he was dead.
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By Cora Walker Hayes Sometimes when I am tired of play My mother says to me, "Come, daughter, we will call to-day On Great-aunt Lucy Lee." And soon, by mother's side, I skip Along the quiet street, Wh... Green Gravel
All round the green gravel the grass grows so green, And all the pretty maids are fit to be seen, Wash them in milk, dress them in silk, And the first to go down shall be married in green. ... Green Willow
Tomodata, the young samurai, owed allegiance to the Lord of Noto. He was a soldier, a courtier, and a poet. He had a sweet voice and a beautiful face, a noble form and a very winning address. He was a graceful dancer, and excelled in every manly s... Greeting
Good little Mother, How do you do? Dear strong "Daddy," Glad to see you! Big tall Brother, Pleased you are here. Kind little Sister, You need not fear, Glad welcome we'll give you, An... Growing-up-like-one-who-has-a-grandmother
That was the name of a little Indian boy living on the North-West coast of America, and a very odd name it is, as well as a very long one. To be sure, in his own language it could all be put into seventeen letters, while in English it takes thirty... Gudbrand On The Hillside
There was once upon a time a man whose name was Gudbrand. He had a farm which lay far away up on the side of a hill, and therefore they called him Gudbrand on the hillside. He and his wife lived so happily together, and agreed so well, that wha... Guessing Length
<p>Take two common nails, or other thin bits of metal, and lay them on a table or board, at what you guess to be exactly one yard (36 inches) apart. Then let the Guide lay the tape-line on it, and, allowing 20 points for exactly right, take off 1 poi... Guleesh
There was once a boy in the County Mayo; Guleesh was his name. There was the finest rath a little way off from the gable of the house, and he was often in the habit of seating himself on the fine grass bank that was running round it. One night he ... Gull's Twinses
"Children of wealth or want, to each is given One spot of green, and all the blue of heaven!" "Mind! mind! I say, Tom, you're frizzing that 'erring black!" "I ain't." "My eyes! don't it smell fine? Oh! I do wish father'd come. He's allus... Guy Fawkes
In the time of James I, many of the English people were very hardly treated because of their religion. At last they could bear the ill-usage no longer, and they thought of a plan to get rid of the king and queen and their eldest son. Many barre... Habetrot The Spinstress
In byegone days, in an old farmhouse which stood by a river, there lived a beautiful girl called Maisie. She was tall and straight, with auburn hair and blue eyes, and she was the prettiest girl in all the valley. And one would have thought that s... Habogi
Once upon a time there lived two peasants who had three daughters, and, as generally happens, the youngest was the most beautiful and the best tempered, and when her sisters wanted to go out she was always ready to stay at home and do their work... Hampden
The following relation is given in the additions to Camden's Britannia, co. Bucks, p. 318. Tradition says the Black Prince, who held Hartwell, had large possessions at Prince's Risborough, where they show part of a wall of his palace, and a field wh... Hana-saka-jiji
In the early days there lived a good old couple. All their lives long they had been honest and hard-working, but they had always been poor. Now in their old age it was all they could do to make both ends meet, the poor old creatures. But they d... Handy-dandy
This game is now played as follows:--a child hides something in one hand, and then places both fists endways on each other, crying,-- Handy-dandy riddledy ro, Which will you have, high or low? Or, sometimes, the following distich,--... Hans In Luck
Some men are born to good luck: all they do or try to do comes right--all that falls to them is so much gain--all their geese are swans--all their cards are trumps--toss them which way you will, they will always, like poor puss, alight upon their le... Hans The Innocent
WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY M. I. WOOD Once upon a time there was a woman called Mrs. Stockchen and she had a son named Hans. They lived together in a little cottage and they had a hen and a cow. One morning Mrs. Stockchen said to her son: "Hans... Hans The Mermaid's Son
Translated from the Danish. In a village there once lived a smith called Basmus, who was in a very poor way. He was still a young man, and a strong handsome fellow to boot, but he had many little children and there was little to be earned by hi... Hansel And Gretel
Once upon a time there dwelt near a large wood a poor wood-cutter, with his wife and two children by his former marriage, a little boy called Hansel and a girl named Gretel. He had little enough to eat; and once, when there was a great famine i... Hansel And Gretel
Hard by a great forest dwelt a poor wood-cutter with his wife and his two children. The boy was called Hansel and the girl Gretel. He had little to bite and to break, and once when great dearth fell on the land, he could no longer procure even daily...