Eliséy had walked about five versts, when day began to break. He sat
down under a tree, untied his wallet, and began to count his money. He
found that he had seventeen roubles twenty kopeks left.
"Well," he thought, "with this sum I cannot travel beyond the sea, but
if I beg in Christ's name, I shall only increase my sin. Friend Efím
will reach the place by himself, and will put up a candle for me. But I
shall evidently never fulfil my vow. The master is merciful, and he will
forgive me."
Eliséy got up, slung his wallet over his shoulders, and turned back. He
made a circle around the village so that people might not see him. And
soon he reached home. On his way out he had found it hard: it was hard
keeping up with Efím; but on his way home God made it easy for him, for
he did not know what weariness was. Walking was just play to him, and he
swayed his staff, and made as much as seventy versts a day.
Eliséy came back home. The harvest was all in. The home folk were glad
to see the old man. They asked all about him, why he had left his
companion and why he had not gone to Jerusalem, but had returned home.
Eliséy did not tell them anything.
"God did not grant me that I should," he said. "I spent my money on the
way, and got separated from my companion. And so I did not go. Forgive
me for Christ's sake."
He gave the old woman what money he had left. He asked all about the
home matters: everything was right; everything had been attended to and
nothing missed, and all were living in peace and agreement.
Efím's people heard that very day that Eliséy had come back, and so they
came to inquire about their old man. And Eliséy told them the same
story.
"You see," he said, "the old man started to walk briskly, and three days
before St. Peter's day we lost each other. I wanted to catch up with
him, but it happened that I spent all my money and could not go on, so I
returned home."
The people marvelled how it was that such a clever man had acted so
foolishly as to start and not reach the place and merely spend his
money. They wondered awhile, and forgot about it. Eliséy, too, forgot
about it. He began to work about the house: he got the wood ready for
the winter with his son, threshed the grain with the women, thatched the
sheds, gathered in the bees, and gave ten hives with the young brood to
his neighbour. When he got all the work done, he sent his son out to
earn money, and himself sat down in the winter to plait bast shoes and
hollow out blocks for the hives.