understood that he had not done his deeds for the sake of God,
and he fell to weeping, and began to repent. Then the angel
stepped aside, and left open to him the way, on which Ioann was
already standing awaiting his brother, and from that time forth
Afanasy yielded no more to the temptation of the devil who had
poured out the gold, and knew that not by gold, but only by
labor, can one serve God and men.

And the brothers began to live as before.[46]

Unfortunately, the best of Tolstoy's peasant stories, such as
"Polikushka," "Two Old Men" (the latter belonging to the recent
hortatory period), and the like, are too long for reproduction here. But
the moral of the following, "Little Girls Wiser than Old Men," is
irreproachable, and the style is the same as in the more important of
those written expressly for the people.

Easter fell early that year. People had only just ceased to use
sledges. The snow still lay in the cottage yards, but rivulets
were flowing through the village; a big puddle had formed
between the cottages, from the dung-heaps, and two little
girls, from different cottages, met by this puddle--one
younger, the other older. Both little girls had been dressed in
new frocks by their mothers. The little one's frock was blue,
the big one's yellow, with a flowered pattern. Both had red
kerchiefs bound about their heads. The little girls came out to
the puddle, after the morning service in church, displayed
their clothes to each other, and began to play. And the fancy
seized them to paddle in the water. The younger girl was on the
point of wading into the pool with her shoes on, but the elder
girl says, "Don't go Malasha, thy mother will scold. Come, I'll
take off my shoes, and do thou take off thine." The little
lasses took off their shoes, tucked up their frocks and waded
into the puddle, to meet each other. Malasha went in up to her
knees, and says, "It's deep, Akuliushka--I'm afraid" "Never
mind," says she; "it won't get any deeper. Come straight
towards me." They began to approach each other, and Akulka
says, "Look out, Malasha, don't splash, but walk quietly." No
sooner had she spoken, than Malasha set her foot down with a
bang in the water, and a splash fell straight on Akulka's
frock. The sarafan was splashed, and some of it fell on her