The morning call., 1891-05-24
ONLY A LITTLE MOUJIK.
II Ii Was Folly, Il Was DiVilG-BGaltifUl
Faith Of a Child Soul.

Out of the dusk they stepped together
out of the dimness of smoking incense and
swinging lamps Of grim ikOns and white
robed choristers, of chanting priests and
bowed worshipers. They were the nearer
to each other because they were both
strangers in that far land of snow and ice
whose splendor and GOODNESS had shot its
mystic chill into their hearts. Together /
say. they came out of the deep warm cathe-
dral into the pallid glow of the winters
evening, into the vagueneSs of the snowy
street, into the lonely stiffness of the
deserted square; and those strange anthems
of an immortal melancholy seemed to pursue
their hurrying, belated feet. Yet her eyes
were full of sunshine as she swayed like
shadowy lily, tall and elegant in her rich
furs, against the western light.
Under the sleeping Neva sighed the tides,
and the birds calling to each other were
fleeing fast. She smiled, but he was grave,
and they spoke of many things together
He taught her OF this curious nation, with
its poverty and its riches, its ignorance and
its insight. and of that superstitious rite
whose hush was still upon them. " 1t is
sublime freak" he said.
just then, passing from pavement to pave
ment, plant reached them, a child's plant,
leud and passionate, born on the wind-gust
that brushed them with its wing. They
looked up. Leaning against the railing,
where the white drifts had massed them
selves in waves of strange loveliness, stood
a little boy. He was weeping bitterly,
wTinging his hands, filling earth and air
with his distress. Swiftly they moved to
where he stood. BY his side lay broken
image, q small, white. plaster thing, such as
Italian vendors carry on their heads and
sell in the th0roughfares of great cities.
She stopped and spoke TO him:
$50 you have broken it, my lad? What
was it worth?" and her cOmpan ion began
to unbutton his military coat, fumbling in
his breast for his pocket book.
'Dvar rube," soDbed the child.
He was dirty little moujk. with round
face roughed by the weather. His eyes
cleaned large and dark under his greasy
old fur cap. His miserable toGloupe was
caught. about his strong young loins by
wlsp OF hemp rope.
In a moment the sum he named, with
generous surplus, was pushed into one of
his icy hands Then instantly. with pierre
ing cry of joy which rent the twilight msts,
the little fellow fell on the snow at their
feet. He lay face downward, aud three
times his head rose and fell.
What has happened to him." said the
lady, frightened.
But in moment she had seen. His lips
were moving; he was beating his hands
upon his heart and crossing himself with
vehemence. When he sprang once more to
his feet he was still pray ing ,-nay, giving
his thanks to Heaven; there was rapt look
on his face. To his benefactor he accorded
only one timid upward glance of gratitude.
Then, gathering his poor garments about
him, he ran away quickly and disappeared
in the falling gloom.
''Ab." said the lady, "my friend, where
shall we find again, you and l, the beautiful
faith of this child soul?"
IF it be folly, ii is a divine one," said her
companion.
She remained silent. and they walked on
ward, saying no more words But upon her
eyeashes tear had frozen.-Julien Gordon,
in Lippincott's