“Who is it?” Martin asked.
“It is I,” the voice said.
And Stepan stepped out of the dark corner, smiling, and vanished like a cloud, and he was no more.
“It is I,” the voice said again, and from out the dark corner stepped the woman with the baby, and she smiled and the child smiled, and they too vanished.
“It is I,” said the voice once more, and out stepped the old woman and boy with an apple in his hand, and both smiled and also vanished.
And a feeling of gladness entered Martin’s soul. He crossed himself, put on his spectacles and began to read the Gospel just where it had opened. At the top of the page were the words, “For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in....”
And at the bottom of the page he read, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
And Martin understood that his dream had come true and that his Saviour had really come to him that day, and that he had welcomed Him.
A PRISONER
An officer by the name of Jilin served in the army in the Caucasus.