In the hollow of His hand

The boy who was reading in a clear, low voice, though with a foreign accent, felt the pressure of his mother's feeble hands, and lifted up his eyes to her white and placid face....

THREE weeks later Michael set out on his return home in a vessel sailing from Glasgow to Odessa. Sandy Gordon, his uncle, accompanied him to Glasgow, loath to part with the boy...

THE last night was spent at Kovylsk. This place was the chief town of the province. Here the governor lived. Here also was the dwelling of the archbishop. The law courts, the co...

MICHAEL was resolved not to let the coldness of his old friends and comrades separate him from them. True, they looked upon him as a heretic, but he had been that before he went...

MICHAEL began his school, protected and encouraged by Father Cyril, the Batoushka, though the Starosta did his best to put a stop to it. Father Cyril had been appointed to the O...

THE children's voices rang out in clear, sweet, and harmonious tones; for the Oukrainians are a musical people, and fond of choral singing. Only now and then a shrill note, soun...

AT that moment, whilst Michael was still speaking, the doorway of the hut was darkened by a man's figure standing between them and the green light of the forest. The children hu...

THE children who had been spending the day in the forest went home at sunset, wearied but very happy. They parted with one another after they had crossed the rough bridge, and M...

AS they drove across the steppe, in the two-wheeled cart without springs, at the slow, monotonous trot of the old mare, Father Cyril had a better opportunity than he had ever ha...

BUT to get little Clava away from her mother, Tatiania, was a hard task, almost an impossible one. The other parents recognised the absolute impossibility of evading the order o...

FATHER CYRIL'S report to the archbishop did no good. The Starosta Okhrim, mad with rage, went to Kovylsk, and had a personal interview with Father Paissy, at the consistory. Thi...

MICHAEL, feeling greatly disgusted by Markovin's cowardice, threw open the door boldly. The visitor, who was carefully wrapped up in a huge sheepskin coat, was no other than the...

FOR the next two days, Michael was busy delivering messages his father had sent by him to the brethren living in Kovylsk. He told no one how he had received these messages, for...

THE short spring-tide was almost spent when news came. The men were all sentenced to exile in Eastern Siberia for various periods; Alexis, whose term was the longest, for ten ye...

On the day that was just past, the last day, he had allowed every mother to see the children she was compelled to leave behind, for the last time. Tatiania had not come to say g...

IN the meantime Michael and Paraska, who had set off at daybreak, were far on their way across the steppe toward Kovylsk. Until they were quite safe from recognition, Clava lay...

MICHAEL lingered about the prison behind whose walls his father was confined, until the carts came in carrying his neighbours and their scanty possessions; for the free exiles w...

AT last they reached the forwarding prison, where they had to await the arrival of the convict-barge which was to take them up the Volga. Here the fathers were to join their fam...

THE band of exiles had several days' rest before the convict-barge which was to carry them up the Volga returned. This gave them all time to recover from their terrible railway...

FOR the first time in his life, Sergius began to realise how much his sister Marfa was to him. She had always been so quiet and reserved, so passive, that she had seemed almost...

DAY after day passed by. The burning sun beat down upon the exiles, scorching their skin and almost blinding their eyes. The fettered convicts could hardly drag their feet along...

TWO days later the exiles reached the city prison, larger than the roadside étapes, which possessed a hospital. Anna Grigorovna had been looking forward eagerly to the hour when...

A GREAT change came over Tatiania. Instead of being a woman of many moods, she had now but one—an almost silent but peaceful resignation. Day after day she paced silently along...

SO the protracted, monotonous march went on; the only change, a change of guards. Some of these made the life more wretched than others; and now and then a captain would compel...

TO Michael and Sergius it was a solemn charge to be entrusted with the funds on which the Stundists were to subsist when they reached their journey's end. To be sure, the convic...

THEY expected their release every day. The band of exiles who had marched together for so many months was broken up, and scattered to various places of exile, excepting those cr...

By this time the new settlers had become favourably known to the inhabitants, and there was no difficulty in getting temporary lodgings whilst they repaired the haunted hut. Wit...

A revulsion of feeling had been brought about by the persecution that had made a clean sweep of the heretics from Knishi. As the crowd which collected to be spectators of the de...

THE long white line of the road to Knishi, running straight up to the distant horizon, lay before Father Cyril, as he drove slowly along it, lost in thought. He was very unhappy...

A STUNTED, emaciated, broken-spirited child, dumb, and not opening her mouth, was Velia when the spring came. Yarina's heart ached for her, but she could show the girl so little...

THE forest was dark with a blackness that blotted out every object. But here they were absolutely safe till morning. There was not a man in Knishi who would dare to enter it. Mi...

WHEN the old Matoushka saw her little victim carried swiftly away by the current, she stood paralysed, watching till Velia was out of her sight. Had she thrust the child in? She...