clothes. Heaven only help me to get away!"

So the shoemaker hurried on, leaving the shrine behind him-when
suddenly his conscience smote him, and he stopped in the road.

"What are you doing, Simon?" said he to himself. "The man may be
dying of want, and you slip past afraid. Have you grown so rich as
to be afraid of robbers? Ah, Simon, shame on you!"

So he turned back and went up to the man.


II

Simon approached the stranger, looked at him, and saw that he was a
young man, fit, with no bruises on his body, only evidently freezing
and frightened, and he sat there leaning back without looking up at
Simon, as if too faint to lift his eyes. Simon went close to him,
and then the man seemed to wake up. Turning his head, he opened his
eyes and looked into Simon's face. That one look was enough to make
Simon fond of the man. He threw the felt boots on the ground, undid
his sash, laid it on the boots, and took off his cloth coat.

"It's not a time for talking," said he. "Come, put this coat on at
once!" And Simon took the man by the elbows and helped him to rise.
As he stood there, Simon saw that his body was clean and in good
condition, his hands and feet shapely, and his face good and kind.
He threw his coat over the man's shoulders, but the latter could not
find the sleeves. Simon guided his arms into them, and drawing the
coat well on, wrapped it closely about him, tying the sash round the