nted in an engraving as fading away almost into
a point in the sky, is, in reality, terminated by a globe of
considerable dimensions, on which an angel stands, supporting a large
cross. This angel was out of repair; and some suspicions were
entertained that he designed visiting, uninvoked, the surface of the
earth. The affair caused some uneasiness, and the government at length
became greatly perplexed. To raise a scaffolding to such a height
would cost a large sum of money; and in meditating fruitlessly on this
circumstance, without knowing how to act, some time was suffered to
elapse.

Among the crowd of gazers below, who daily turned their eyes and their
thoughts towards the angel, was a mujik called Telouchkine. This man
was a roofer of houses (a slater, as he would be called in countries
where slates were used); and his speculations by degrees assumed a
more practical character than the idle wonders and conjectures of the
rest of the crowd. The spire was entirely covered with sheets of
gilded copper, and presented to the eye a surface as smooth as if it
had been one mass of burnished gold. But Telouchkine knew that the
sheets of copper were not even uniformly closed upon each other, and,
above all, that there were large nails used to fasten them, which
projected from the side of the spire.

Having thought on these circumstances till his mind was made up,
Telouchkine went to the government and offered to repair the angel
without scaffolding, and without assistance, on condition of being
reasonably paid for the time expended in the labor. The offer was
accepted.

The day fixed for the adventure arrives. Telouchkine, provided with
nothing more than a coil of ropes, ascends the spire in the interior
to the last window. Here he looks down at the concourse of the people
below, and up at the glittering "needle," as it is called, tapering
far above his head. But his heart does not fail him; and stepping
gravely out upon the window, he sets about his task.

He cuts a portion of the cord in the form of two large stirrups, with
a loop at each end. The upper loops he fastens upon two of the
projecting nails above his head, and places his foot in the others.
Then digging the fingers of one hand into the interstices of the
sheets of copper, he raises one of the stirrups with the other hand,
so as to make it catch a nail higher up. The same operation he
performs on behalf of the other leg, and so on alternately. And thus
he