What people live by Author:Leo Tolstoy Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: snatched it, threw it over her head and started for the door. She wanted to leave them, but stopped. " She was very angry, and wanted both to vent her anger and ... more »to find out what kind of a man Simon had brought home with him. So she stopped and said: " If he had been a good man he would not have been found naked; see, he has no shirt. If he had been in any decent place, you would have told where you found him." " I tell you I was passing the chapel and saw him sitting there naked, nearly frozen. It isn't summer time now. It was God's Providence that I stumbled on him, otherwise he would have died. What could I do ? Such thingswill happen sometimes. I dressed him and brought him here. Do keep quiet; it's a sin to talk so, Matrona. We shall all have to die." Matrona was about to break out again, but she glanced at the stranger and suddenly stopped. There he sat, motionless, just as he had seated himself on the edge of the bench, when he first entered. His hands were folded on his knees, his head hung down, he kept his eyes closed, and was frowning, as though something was choking him. Matrona was silent. 'V, " Matrona, is there no God in you ? " said Simon. When Matrona heard that, she glanced once more at the stranger, and suddenly her anger passed away. She came from the door to the oven and fetched the supper. She placed the bowl on the table, poured out the kvas and served the last of the loaf. Then she handed the knife and spoons. " Eat," she said. Simon touched the stranger. " Sit there," he said. Simon cut the bread, crumbled it into the bowl, and they began their supper. Matrona seated herself by the edge of the table, leaned on her elbow and gazed at the stranger. She pitied him, and an affection for him sprang up in her heart. He too,b...« less