bears, avoided people and
thought out all their ideas for themselves, they were given to
dreams and to doubts and to changes of faith and almost each
generation had a peculiar faith of its own. The grandmother Avdotya,
who had built the inn, was an Old Believer; her son and both her
grandsons (the fathers of Matvey and Yakov) went to the Orthodox
church, entertained the clergy, and worshipped before the new ikons
as devoutly as they had done before the old. The son in old age
refused to eat meat and imposed upon himself the rule of silence,
considering all conversation as sin; it was the peculiarity of the
grandsons that they interpreted the Scripture not simply, but sought
in it a hidden meaning, declaring that every sacred word must contain
a mystery.

Avdotya's great-grandson Matvey had struggled from early childhood
with all sorts of dreams and fancies and had been almost ruined by
it; the other great-grandson, Yakov Ivanitch, was orthodox, but
after his wife's death he gave up going to church and prayed at
home. Following his example, his sister Aglaia had turned, too; she
did not go to church herself, and did not let Dashutka go. Of Aglaia
it was told that in her youth she used to attend the Flagellant
meetings in Vedenyapino, and that she was still a Flagellant in
secret, and that was why she wore a white kerchief.

Yakov Ivanitch was ten years older than Matvey--he was a very
handsome tall old man with a big grey beard almost to his waist,
and bushy eyebrows which gave his face a stern, even ill-natured
expression. He wore a long jerkin of good cloth or a black sheepskin
coat, and altogether tried to be clean and neat in dress; he wore
goloshes even in dry weather. He did not go to church, because, to
his thinking, the services were not properly celebrated and because
the priests drank wine at unlawful times and smoked tobacco. Every
day he read and sang the service at home with Aglaia. At Vedenyapino
they left out the "Praises" at early matins, and had no evening
service even on great holidays, but he used to read through at home
everything that was laid down for every day, without hurrying or
leaving out a single line, and even in his spare time read aloud
the Lives of the Saints. And in everyday life he adhered strictly
to the rules of the church; thus, if wine were allowed on some day
in Lent "for the sake of the vigil," then he never failed to drink
wine, even if he were not inclined.

He read, sang,