help
glancing at the window from time to time.

"Dost thou expect any one?" asked his guest.

"Do I expect any one? Well, honestly, I hardly know. I am expecting and I
am not expecting, and there's a word which has burnt itself right into my
heart. Whether it was a vision or no, I know not. Look now, my brother! I
was reading yesterday about our little Father Christ, how He suffered, how
He came on earth. Hast thou heard of Him, eh?"

"I have heard, I have heard," replied Stepanuich, "but we poor ignorant
ones know not our letters."

"Anyhow, I was reading about this very thing--how He came down upon earth.
I was reading how He went to the Pharisee, and how the Pharisee did not
meet Him half-way. That was what I was reading about yesternight, little
brother mine. I read that very thing, and bethought me how the Honorable
did not receive our little Father Christ honorably. But suppose, I
thought, if He came to one like me--would I receive Him? Simon at any rate
did not receive Him at all. Thus I thought, and so thinking, fell asleep.
I fell asleep, I say, little brother mine, and I heard my name called. I
started up. A voice was whispering at my very ear. 'Look out to-morrow!' it
said, 'I am coming.' And so it befell twice. Now look! wouldst thou
believe it? the idea stuck to me--I scold myself for my folly, and yet I
look for Him, our little Father Christ!"

Stepanuich shook his head and said nothing, but he drank his cup dry and
put it aside. Then Avdyeeich took up the cup and filled it again.

"Drink some more. 'Twill do thee good. Now it seems to me that when our
little Father went about on earth, He despised no one, but sought unto the
simple folk most of all. He was always among the simple folk. Those
disciples of His too, He chose most of them from amongst our
brother-laborers, sinners like unto us. He that exalteth himself, He says,
shall be abased, and he that abaseth himself shall be exalted. Ye, says He,
call me Lord, and I, says He, wash your feet. He who would be the first
among you, He says, let him become the servant of all. And therefore it is
that He says, Blessed are the lowly, the peacemakers, the humble, and the
long-suffering."

Stepanuich forgot his tea. He was an old man, soft-hearted, and tearful.
He sat and listened, and the tears rolled down his cheeks.

"Come, drink a little more," said Avdyeeich. But Stepanuich crossed
himself, expressed his thanks, pushed away his cup, and got up.