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Play it all the time; for it is merry and it makes us laugh!" cried Nesîbeh, clapping her hands. "Ready!" cried Mîtri from the house; and Khalîl stepped out with triumph, flourishing his concertina, flinging its strains out far and wide; his head, his whole body carried this way and that with the violence of his exertions. Elias and other excitables cut strange capers or embraced each other.
Her priests are better in their lives; they begin to be educated; and, as a consequence, she holds her ground. I submit to thee that we have made few, if any, converts from you in the last ten years." "That is true," said Mîtri, greatly interested; "and by my life thou speakest like an angel.
The peasant told him how he was situated. He had five children, and this had been his only horse. Now it was gone. He wept. "What are you going to do?" "To beg." And he knelt down, and remained kneeling in spite of Volgin's expostulations. "What is your name?" "Mitri Sudarikov," answered the peasant, still kneeling.
Many of the lights dispersed to the right and left, others moved down to the river side. There was the sound of foot-falls on the bottom of a boat and the splashing of oars. Someone called out: "Wai ... ait ... Mitri ... ich!" There was a clanking of iron a boat-chain; then stillness. Only the lights showed that the boat had been launched into the middle of the river and was floating down stream.
Surely the falsehood of their teaching must be evident to a youth of thy intelligence?" "Nay, O my father, though my soul abhors them, I still discern much good in their beliefs." Iskender, freed from fear, could argue lightly. That morning, when he gave his word to Mîtri, he had felt alone and helpless.
The little crowd of men, women, and children, having finished with Elias, now drew near, and sat or lay in a half circle at a respectful distance from the group upon the carpet. The brother of Azîz flung oranges to them; and both he and Mîtri asked for tidings of the boaster, which Iskender was called upon to translate for the Frank's behoof. The downfall of Elias seemed complete.
On his way to the hotel he saw the daughter of Mîtri throwing crumbs to the church pigeons, and blew a kiss to her with words of love, only to laugh loud when, picking up a stone, she cursed his father. At the entering-in of the town he was accosted by Elias, who sprang suddenly from the shade of a cactus-hedge. Yuhanna followed, yawning. It was clear that they had been lying in wait.
Having no influence to oppose to so powerful an adversary except that of the Patriarch, Mîtri had decided in his mind to make appeal to His Beatitude, who was sure to feel kindly disposed towards a convert from Protestantism; when a message was brought to the functionary, whose manner changed at once.
His wife was putting straw into the stove with one hand, with the other she was holding a baby girl to her breast, which was hanging out of her dirty chemise. Mitri crossed himself three times, turning towards the corner in which the ikons hung, and repeated some utterly meaningless words, which he called prayers, to the Trinity and the Virgin, the Creed and our Father. "Isn't there any water?"
In the morning early he returned to the house of Mîtri. As he reached it a noise of chanting in the little church informed him that the priest was at his duties; so he squatted down in the shade of the ever-green oak, and waited till the service should be ended. Presently a group of brown-legged boys came tumbling out, smiting one another and shouting the minute they had passed the threshold.
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