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206

(1897) [MARC] Author: Jonas Jonsson Stadling Translator: Will Reason With: Gerda Tirén, Johan Tirén - Tema: Russia
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name) in the street and carried her to him by force. The
young girl struggled to break loose, entreated, wept, and
shrieked for mercy—there was no help. Paracha was shut up
in the Prince’s house, and I do not know what happened to
her there. What I do know is that I could not brook this
injury. I cursed the life of a serf, and one dark night set fire
to the Prince’s house and made off to the forest. From forest to
forest, from government to government I wandered, and knew
no peace by night or day, like Cain who had killed his brother
Abel. At every sound I heard in the forest I started and
trembled like a leaf, fearful lest they should come and seize
me and throw me into prison. Sometimes at evening I would
come to an izba and peep in through the window. The whole
family would be sitting round a lutchina (a lighted pine-splint,
set on a stand, used to avoid the expense of tallow candles), the
father making lapti (a kind of shoes), the mother spinning,
the daughter sewing, the children building houses with bits of
wood. Poverty was there, but they were all warm, they
looked contented, and feared nothing. And I—I was alone,
abandoned, and had not where to lay my head!

“At last I met an anchorite in the forest. The sun had set
one evening when I saw an old man with snow-white hair
come out of what might have been the cave of a bear, covered
by the brushwood. He dipped himself three times in the
stream, resumed his clothes, bowed to the four points of the
compass, and turned again towards his cave. I sprang towards
him. ‘Holy man,’ I cried, ‘do not refuse me a kind word.’

“‘Who are you?’ asked the old man.

“‘Fear nothing, I am only a peaceful fugitive.’

“‘You are not a robber?’—‘No.’

“‘What is your faith?’ ‘I know nothing about it myself,’
I answered. ‘I have not been taught.’

“‘Will you learn to know the true faith?’—‘Yes.’

“‘Well then, follow me!’

“We entered an underground cavern. It was somewhat
spacious, but gloomy. The walls were wooden, there was a
stone table, and on the table a book lay open. There was no
bed, but on the stone floor a hide was spread. The old man

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