And Semén and Matréna understood whom they had clothed and fed, and who
had lived with them, and they wept for terror and for joy, and said the
angel:
"I was left all alone in the field, and naked. I had not known before of
human wants, neither of cold, nor of hunger, and I became a man. I was
starved and chilled and did not know what to do. I saw in the field a
chapel made for the Lord, and I went to God's chapel and wanted to hide
myself in it. The chapel was locked, and I could not get in. And I
seated myself behind the chapel, to protect myself against the wind. The
evening came, I was hungry and chilled, and I ached all over. Suddenly I
heard a man walking on the road; he was carrying a pair of boots and
talking to himself. And I saw a mortal face, for the first time since I
had become a man, and that face was terrible to me, and I turned away
from it. And I heard the man talking to himself about how he might cover
his body in the winter from the cold, and how he might feed his wife and
children. And I thought: 'I am dying from hunger and cold, and here
comes a man, who is thinking only of how to cover himself and his wife
with a fur coat, and of how to feed his family. He cannot help me.' The
man saw me; he frowned, and looked gloomier still, and passed by me. And
I was in despair. Suddenly I heard the man coming back. I looked at him
and did not recognize him: before that death had been in his face, and
now he was revived, and in his face I saw God. He came up to me, and
clothed me, and took me with him, and led me to his house. I came to
his house, and a woman came out of the house and began to talk. The
woman was more terrible yet than the man; the dead spirit was coming out
of her mouth, and I could not breathe from the stench of death. She
wanted to send me out into the cold, and I knew that she would die if
she drove me out. And suddenly her husband reminded her of God. And the
woman suddenly changed. And when she gave us to eat, and looked at us, I
glanced at her: there was no longer death in her,--she was alive, and I
recognized God in her.
"And I recalled God's first word: 'You will know what there is in men.'
And I learned that there was love in men. And I rejoiced at it, because
God had begun to reveal to me what He had promised, and I smiled for the
first time. But I could not yet learn everything. I could not understand
what was not given to men, and what men lived by.
"I began to live with you, and lived a year, and there came a man, to
order a pair of boots, such as would wear a year, without ripping or
turning. I looked at him, and suddenly I saw behind his shoulder my
companion, the angel of death. None but me saw that angel; but I knew
him, and I knew that the sun would not go down before the rich man's
soul would be taken away. And I thought: 'The man is providing for a
year, and does not know that he will not live until evening.' And I
thought of God's second word: 'You will learn what is not given to men.'
"I knew already what there was in men. Now I learned what was not given
to men. It is not given men to know what they need for their bodies. And
I smiled for the second time. I was glad because I had seen my comrade
the angel, and because God had revealed the second word to me.
"But I could not understand everything. I could not understand what men
lived by. And I lived and waited for God to reveal to me the last word.
And in the sixth year came the twin girls with the woman, and I
recognized the girls and knew how they were kept alive. I recognized
them, and I thought: 'The mother begged me for the sake of the children,
and I believed the mother and thought that the children could not live
without father and mother, and yet a strange woman has fed them and
reared them.' And when the woman was touched as she looked at the
children and wept, I saw in her the living God, and I understood what
men lived by. And I learned that God had revealed the third word to me
and forgave me. And I smiled for the third time."