He jumped off the sofa and began dressing.  He felt splendid; nothing was left of his yesterday’s illness but a slight weakness in his legs and neck.  So the vinegar and oil had done good.  He remembered the steamer, the railway engine, and the broad river, which he had dimly seen the day before, and now he made haste to dress, to run to the quay and have a look at them.  When he had washed and was putting on his red shirt, the latch of the door clicked, and Father Christopher appeared in the doorway, wearing his top-hat and a brown silk cassock over his canvas coat and carrying his staff in his hand.  Smiling and radiant (old men are always radiant when they come back from church), he put a roll of holy bread and a parcel of some sort on the table, prayed before the ikon, and said: 

“God has sent us blessings—­well, how are you?”

“Quite well now,” answered Yegorushka, kissing his hand.

“Thank God. . . .  I have come from mass.  I’ve been to see a sacristan I know.  He invited me to breakfast with him, but I didn’t go.  I don’t like visiting people too early, God bless them!”

He took off his cassock, stroked himself on the chest, and without haste undid the parcel.  Yegorushka saw a little tin of caviare, a piece of dry sturgeon, and a French loaf.

“See; I passed a fish-shop and brought this,” said Father Christopher.  “There is no need to indulge in luxuries on an ordinary weekday; but I thought, I’ve an invalid at home, so it is excusable.  And the caviare is good, real sturgeon. . . .”

The man in the white shirt brought in the samovar and a tray with tea-things.

“Eat some,” said Father Christopher, spreading the caviare on a slice of bread and handing it to Yegorushka.  “Eat now and enjoy yourself, but the time will soon come for you to be studying.  Mind you study with attention and application, so that good may come of it.  What you have to learn by heart, learn by heart, but when you have to tell the inner sense in your own words, without regard to the outer form, then say it in your own words.  And try to master all subjects.  One man knows mathematics excellently, but has never heard of Pyotr Mogila; another knows about Pyotr Mogila, but cannot explain about the moon.  But you study so as to understand everything.  Study Latin, French, German, . . . geography, of course, history, theology, philosophy, mathematics, . . . and when you have mastered everything, not with haste but with prayer and with zeal, then go into the service.  When you know everything it will be easy for you in any line of life. . . .  You study and strive for the divine blessing, and God will show you what to be.  Whether a doctor, a judge or an engineer. . . .”

Father Christopher spread a little caviare on a piece of bread, put it in his mouth and said: