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What Men Live by

II.

Simon goes up to the man, looks carefully at him and perceives that the man is young and robust, with no bruises on his body; but it was plain that the man was half frozen and full of fear—there he sat, leaning against the wall, and did not even look at Simon, as if he were too weak to raise his eyes. Simon went close up to him, and, suddenly, as if the man had only just awoke, he turned his head, opened his eyes, and looked at Simon. This look quite endeared the man to Simon. He threw the boot-soles to the ground, ungirded himself, placed his girdle on the boots, and drew off his kaftan.

"Can you talk a bit?" said he. "Never mind! Come, put this on!"

Simon took the man by the elbow and helped to lift him up. The man got up, and Simon saw that his body was slender and clean, that his hands and feet had no bruises upon them, and his face was pleasant to look upon. Simon threw his kaftan over the man's shoulders, but the man could not manage the sleeves. So Simon put his hands right for him, stroked down and buttoned up the kaftan, and girded it with the girdle.

Simon also tore his tattered cap from his head to put it on the bare head of the man, but his own head went quite cold, and he thought to himself: "I am bald all over my head, but he has long locks all down his temples," and he put on his hat again. "'Twere better if I bound on him my boots."

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