Thy brother's one leap is more precious than all the deeds which thou hast done with thy gold." And Afanasy began to tell of how many paupers and wanderers he had fed, how many orphans he had cared for, and the angel said to him, "That devil who placed the gold there to seduce thee hath also taught thee these words." And then did Afanasy's conscience convict him, and he understood that he had not done his deeds for the sake of God, and he fell to weeping, and began to repent.

Then the angel stepped aside, and left open to him the way, on which Ioann was already standing awaiting his brother, and from that time forth Afanasy yielded no more to the temptation of the devil who had poured out the gold, and knew that not by gold, but only by labor, can one serve God and men.
And the brothers began to live as before.[46] Unfortunately, the best of Tolstoy's peasant stories, such as "Polikushka," "Two Old Men" (the latter belonging to the recent hortatory period), and the like, are too long for reproduction here.

But the moral of the following, "Little Girls Wiser than Old Men," is irreproachable, and the style is the same as in the more important of those written expressly for the people.
Easter fell early that year.

People had only just ceased to use sledges.

The snow still lay in the cottage yards, but rivulets were flowing through the village; a big puddle had formed between the cottages, from the dung-heaps, and two little girls, from different cottages, met by this puddle--one younger, the other older.