The castle town Novgrodek with its trusty people,
As Thou didst give me back to health in childhood,
When by my weeping mother placed beneath Thy care
I raised my lifeless eyelids upward,
And straightway walked unto Thy holy threshold,
To thank God for the life restored me,--
So by a wonder now restore us to the bosom of our birthplace."

The swollen wave broke through the restraint of his will. The old man
sobbed, and threw himself on the ground; his milk-white hair was mingled
with the sand of the sea. Forty years had passed since he had seen his
country, and God knows how many since he heard his native speech; and
now that speech had come to him itself,--it had sailed to him over the
ocean, and found him in solitude on another hemisphere,--it so loved, so
dear, so beautiful! In the sobbing which shook him there was no pain,--
only a suddenly aroused immense love, in the presence of which other
things are as nothing. With that great weeping he had simply implored
forgiveness of that beloved one, set aside because he had grown so old,
had become so accustomed to his solitary rock, and had so forgotten it
that in him even longing had begun to disappear. But now it returned as
if by a miracle; therefore the heart leaped in him.

Moments vanished one after another; he lay there continually. The mews
flew over the light-house, crying as if alarmed for their old friend.
The hour in which he fed them with the remnants of his food had come;
therefore, some of them flew down from the light-house to him; then more
and more came, and began to pick and to shake their wings over his head.
The sound of the wings roused him. He had wept his fill, and had now a
certain calm and brightness; but his eyes were as if inspired. He gave
unwittingly all his provisions to the birds, which rushed at him with an