ome.

While strolling about one day, Volodya, impelled by his childish
curiosity, decides, with two of his friends, to explore the chapel.
He meets there Tibertius' children and they strike up a friendship.
The description of the ruins and of the superstitious fear of the
children gives an opportunity for some exquisite pages. If the
little vagabonds are hungry, poor Volodya, who himself is without
love or caresses, suffers still more, but every time that he brings
the children some apples or cakes he feels that he is less unhappy,
because these offerings are accepted with such an outpouring of
gratitude. Gradually, the little lad gets to know all the
inhabitants, and becomes especially intimate with Maroussya, whose
eyes have an expression of precocious desolation.

"Her smile," says Korolenko, "reminded me of my mother during the
last few months of her life; so much so, that I almost used to weep
when I watched this little girl."

One day, Volodya brings her some apples, flowers, and a doll that
his little sister has given him.

"Why is she always so sad?" he asks Maroussya's brother.

"It is on account of the grey stone," he replies.

"Yes, the grey stone," repeated Maroussya, like a feeble echo.

"What grey stone?"

"The grey stone that has sucked the life out of her," explained
Vanek, gazing at the sky. "Tibertius says so, and Tibertius knows
everything."

"I was very much puzzled, but the force with which Tibertius'
omniscience was affirmed impressed me. I looked at the little girl,
who was still playing with the flowers, but almost without moving.
There were dark rings under her eyes and her face was pale. I did
not exactly understand the meaning of Tibertius' words, but I felt
dimly that they veiled some terrible reality. The grey stone was, in
fact, sucking out the life of this frail child. But how could grey
stones do it? How could this hard and formless thing worm itself
into Maroussya's very soul, and make the ruddy glow disappear from
her cheeks and the brilliancy from her eyes? These mysteries puzzled
me more than the phantoms of the castle."

Volodya's father is not aware that he is spending part of his days
in the cemetery, and knows nothing of his son's new friends. But one
day the secret is discovered, and a family storm follows. The judge
demands a full confession. Volodya heroically remains silent.
Finally, Tibertius himself pleads the child's cause so eloquently
that Volodya is not sco