What Men Live By

What Men Live By

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Tolstoy #16 in our series by Leo Tolstoy
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Title: What Men Live By and Other Tales
Author: Leo Tolstoy Translated by L. and A. Maude

Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6157] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on November 19,
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Edition: 10
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT
MEN LIVE BY ***

Produced by Joe Jurca

What Men Live By and Other Tales
by
Leo Tolstoy

What Men Live By

"We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love
the brethren. He that loveth not abideth in death." --1 "Epistle St. John"
iii. 14.
"Whoso hath the world's goods, and beholdeth his brother in need, and
shutteth up his compassion from him, how doth the love of God abide
in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither with the
tongue; but in deed and truth." --iii. 17-18.
"Love is of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and

knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."
-iv. 7-8.
"No man hath beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God
abideth in us." --iv. 12.
"God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God
abideth in him." --iv. 16.
"If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that
loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom
he hath not seen?" --iv. 20.

A shoemaker named Simon, who had neither house nor land of his own,
lived with his wife and children in a peasant's hut, and earned his living
by his work. Work was cheap, but bread was dear, and what he earned
he spent for food. The man and his wife had but one sheepskin coat
between them for winter wear, and even that was torn to tatters, and
this was the second year he had been wanting to buy sheep-skins for a
new coat. Before winter Simon saved up a little money: a three-rouble
note lay hidden in his wife's box, and five roubles and twenty kopeks
were owed him by customers in the village.
So one morning he prepared to go to the village to buy the sheep- skins.
He put on over his shirt his wife's wadded nankeen jacket, and over that
he put his own cloth coat. He took the three-rouble note in his pocket,
cut himself a stick to serve as a staff, and started off after breakfast. "I'll
collect the five roubles that are due to me," thought he, "add the three I
have got, and that will be enough to buy sheep-skins for the winter
coat."
He came to the village and called at a peasant's hut, but the man was
not at home. The peasant's wife promised that the money should be
paid next week, but she would not pay it herself. Then Simon called on
another peasant, but this one swore he had no money, and would only
pay twenty kopeks which he owed for a pair of boots Simon had

mended. Simon then tried to buy the sheep-skins on credit, but the
dealer would not trust him.
"Bring your money," said he, "then you may have your pick of the
skins. We know what debt-collecting is like." So all the business the
shoemaker did was to get the twenty kopeks for boots he had mended,
and to take a pair of felt boots a peasant gave him to sole with leather.
Simon felt downhearted. He spent the twenty kopeks on vodka, and
started homewards without having bought any skins. In the morning he
had felt the frost; but now, after drinking