"Yes, . . . yes, . . ." answered Yegorushka, sobbing.

"Well, you'd better go back then. Anyway, you are going for nothing;
it's a day's journey for a spoonful of porridge."

"Never mind, never mind, my boy," Father Christopher went on. "Call
upon God. . . . Lomonosov set off with the fishermen in the same
way, and he became a man famous all over Europe. Learning in
conjunction with faith brings forth fruit pleasing to God. What are
the words of the prayer? For the glory of our Maker, for the comfort
of our parents, for the benefit of our Church and our country. . . .
Yes, indeed!"

"The benefit is not the same in all cases," said Kuzmitchov, lighting
a cheap cigar; "some will study twenty years and get no sense from
it."

"That does happen."

"Learning is a benefit to some, but others only muddle their brains.
My sister is a woman who does not understand; she is set upon
refinement, and wants to turn Yegorka into a learned man, and she
does not understand that with my business I could settle Yegorka
happily for the rest of his life. I tell you this, that if everyone
were to go in for being learned and refined there would be no one
to sow the corn and do the trading; they would all die of hunger."

"And if all go in for trading and sowing corn there will be no one
to acquire learning."