Tolstoi for the young: Select tales from Tolstoi

IX

The godson wandered and wandered until nightfall, when he came to a wood, and in the wood was a cell. He went up to the cell and knocked at the door.

A voice from within asked, “Who is that?”

“Set fire to those three logs,” he said.

“Now plant them half into the ground, like this.”

“I know now,” he said, “that you cannot drive out evil by evil, but I don’t know how it can be driven out and I want you to tell me.”

“Do you see a river there by that hill? Fetch some water in your mouth and water them. Water this one in the way you taught the woman to clean, this one in the way you taught the hoopers, and this one in the way you taught the shepherds. When the three pieces of charcoal grow into apple-trees you will know how to rid the world of evil, and will then have atoned for your sins.”

“Come,” he said.

“Chop it into three parts.”

“A great sinner. I have come to atone for the sins of another.”

The hermit walked away from the cell and pointed to a tree. “Cut it down,” he said.

The hermit waited until he had finished, then he went into his cell and brought out a jagged axe.

The godson told him about the woman and how she had tried to clean the table, and of the peasants who had tried to make the hoops, and the shepherds who had tried to light a fire.

The godson planted them.

The godson made a fire and burnt the three logs till only three pieces of charcoal were left.

The godson felled it.

The godson chopped it into three parts. The hermit again went into his cell and brought out a light.

And the hermit said, “Tell me what else you have seen on the way?”

And the hermit asked, “What are these sins you have taken upon yourself?”

And the godson told him everything about his godfather and the mother-bear and the cubs and about the throne in the sealed room, and about his godfather’s commands, and about the peasants who had trampled the corn in the field, and the calf that had come to its mistress at her call.

With these words the hermit went into his cell. The godson pondered and pondered and could not understand what the hermit had said, but he did what the hermit had told him.