Two Old Men (Tolstoy)
Short summary
Two old Russian peasants made a vow to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem together.
After years of delay, they finally set out. Five weeks into their journey, they reached a famine-stricken district. Elisha stopped at a hut for water and found a starving family - a dying woman, her sick husband, an old woman, and two children. While EfĂm continued ahead, Elisha stayed to help them. He spent days nursing them back to health, buying them food and supplies. Realizing they would starve again after he left, Elisha decided:
Tomorrow I will redeem their cornfield... or else while I go to seek the Lord beyond the sea, I may lose Him in myself.
Elisha spent all his money redeeming their land and buying them a horse, cow, and supplies before returning home. Meanwhile, EfĂm reached Jerusalem and visited all the holy sites. Three times he saw Elisha standing in the holiest place near the Sepulchre, though Elisha had never actually arrived. Back home, EfĂm learned Elisha had returned earlier. When EfĂm discovered how Elisha had helped the family, he understood that true worship meant serving others in need.
Detailed summary by chapters
Chapter titles are editorial.
Chapter 1. Two friends plan a pilgrimage to Jerusalem
Two elderly peasants from a Russian village had long dreamed of making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship at the holy sites. They had taken a vow years earlier to undertake this sacred journey together, but various circumstances had always prevented their departure.
EfĂm always found reasons to delay their departure - first arranging his grandson's marriage, then waiting for his youngest son's return from the army, and finally building a new cottage. When Elisha pressed him about fulfilling their vow, EfĂm worried about the expense and leaving his unfinished building project. Elisha convinced his friend that they should not postpone their sacred duty any longer, declaring:
Chapter 2. Preparations and departure for the holy journey
There's nothing more precious than the soul.
Elisha's words persuaded EfĂm, and within a week both men prepared for their journey. EfĂm took a hundred roubles for himself and left two hundred with his wife, giving detailed instructions to his eldest son about managing the household and completing the cottage. Elisha sold ten beehives to his neighbor and gathered the remaining money from his family members, including his wife's funeral savings. Unlike EfĂm, Elisha gave only general guidance to his wife about household matters, trusting her judgment. Their families prepared food and supplies for the journey, and the two old men set off on their pilgrimage with the village's blessing.
Chapter 3. The long road through different lands
The two men walked cheerfully for five weeks, wearing out their homemade bark shoes and having to buy new ones. Elisha traveled with a light heart, focusing on pleasing his companion and behaving kindly to everyone they met. His only weakness was his inability to give up taking snuff, though he tried to hide this habit from EfĂm. In contrast, EfĂm walked steadily but remained troubled by worries about his home and whether his son was following his instructions properly. When they reached Little Russia, the people welcomed them warmly, providing free food and lodging. However, as they continued their journey, they entered a region devastated by crop failure, where the peasants could barely feed themselves and many had died of starvation.
Chapter 4. Elisha discovers a starving family
After walking sixteen miles in the heat, Elisha felt thirsty and stopped at a small clay hut while EfĂm continued along the main road. In the yard, Elisha found a gaunt man lying motionless in the sun. When he knocked on the door and entered the dwelling, he discovered a scene of desperate poverty and starvation.
The man from the yard staggered inside and explained in broken words that illness and famine had seized them all. Elisha immediately opened his traveling sack and began feeding the starving family with his bread, giving water to their parched mouths.
Chapter 5. Caring for the desperate family
Elisha went to the village shop to buy millet, salt, flour, and oil. He chopped wood, made a fire, and cooked soup for the family. The man and old woman ate a little, while the children devoured their portions and fell asleep in each other's arms. The family told Elisha how they had gradually fallen into destitution after the crop failure, selling everything they owned for bread and eventually eating grass to survive. The woman had fallen ill, possibly from the grass, and they had been waiting for death when Elisha arrived. Elisha remained with them for three days, nursing them back to health and doing housework as if it were his own home.
Chapter 6. Elishas sacrifice: choosing charity over pilgrimage
On the fourth day, which was a feast day, Elisha bought food for a proper celebration and broke the fast with the family. The husband went to beg mercy from a rich peasant who held mortgages on their land, but returned sadly - the peasant demanded money and showed no compassion. That night, Elisha lay in the yard wrestling with his conscience. He realized that if he left, the family would return to their desperate state, as they had no means to harvest crops or support themselves.
In a vivid dream, Elisha saw himself trying to leave but being held back by the little girl pulling at his sack, crying for bread, while the boy clung to his leg and the family watched from the window. Upon waking, Elisha made his decision. The next morning, he redeemed the family's cornfield and meadow from the rich peasant, bought them a horse and cart, and purchased a sack of flour. When he returned with these provisions, he quietly packed his belongings and left during the night, abandoning his pilgrimage to Jerusalem but having found a different path to serve God.
Chapter 7. The journey home: Elishas return without reaching Jerusalem
After walking three miles, Elisha counted his remaining money - only seventeen roubles and twenty kopecks. He realized he could not afford to cross the sea to Jerusalem and decided to return home. The journey back seemed easier than the outward trip, and he covered forty to fifty miles daily. When he reached home after the harvest, his family welcomed him with questions about his failed pilgrimage. Elisha gave a simple explanation:
It was not God's will that I should get there... I lost my money on the way, and lagged behind my companion.
Elisha returned to his normal life, working with his son and managing his beehives. When it came time to deliver the promised bee swarms to his neighbor, instead of the original ten hives, he generously gave seventeen swarms.
Chapter 8. EfĂms solitary journey to the Holy Land
Meanwhile, EfĂm had waited for Elisha but eventually continued alone, assuming they would meet in Odessa or on the ship. He traveled with another pilgrim wearing a priest's coat who had been to Mount Athos and was making his second journey to Jerusalem. In Odessa, EfĂm obtained a foreign passport and bought a return ticket to Jerusalem for forty roubles. The ship encountered a severe storm that frightened many passengers, but EfĂm remained steadfast at his place on deck.
After stops in Constantinople, Smyrna, and Alexandria, they safely reached Jaffa. From there, they walked forty miles to Jerusalem, staying at the Russian inn. EfĂm visited the Holy Places with his companion, including the Patriarchate where monks washed and kissed the pilgrims' feet. They toured various sacred sites including Mary of Egypt's cell, Abraham's Monastery, and churches associated with Christ's appearances. However, the pilgrim claimed his purse containing twenty-three roubles had been stolen, though EfĂm suspected this was false.
Chapter 9. Temptation and doubt in Jerusalem
At the Church of the Resurrection, EfĂm struggled with temptation as he doubted the pilgrim's honesty about the stolen money. Despite trying to dismiss these thoughts as sinful, EfĂm could not shake his suspicion that the man had never possessed any money at all. During the crowded midnight Mass at the Holy Sepulchre, EfĂm worried about his own purse being stolen while being pressed by the multitude of pilgrims from different nations. The pilgrim eventually disappeared without repaying the rouble he had borrowed from EfĂm.
Chapter 10. Mysterious visions at the Holy Sepulchre
On three separate occasions while visiting the Holy Sepulchre, EfĂm witnessed something extraordinary. In the most sacred place, directly beneath the burning lamps and in front of all the other pilgrims, he saw a familiar figure - a bald-headed old man in a grey coat who looked exactly like Elisha. Each time EfĂm tried to approach this figure, the man would disappear into the crowd. On the third day, EfĂm saw the same figure standing with arms outstretched like a priest at the altar, his bald head shining, gazing upward as if seeing something divine above. Despite EfĂm's attempts to wait by the door and catch him, Elisha's apparition always vanished mysteriously.
Chapter 11. Learning the truth about Elishas deed
After six weeks in Jerusalem, visiting Bethlehem, Bethany, and the Jordan River, EfĂm began his journey home. When he reached the region where he had parted from Elisha the previous year, he was amazed to see how the people had recovered from their former starvation. A little girl invited him into a hut where a family welcomed him warmly. The woman explained their gratitude to pilgrims:
We were dying in despair, murmuring against God and man. But he set us on our feet again; and through him we learned to know God.
The family described how a bald-headed pilgrim had saved them from death, providing food, redeeming their land, and buying them a horse and cart. The old woman added:
We don't know whether it was a man, or an angel from God. He loved us all, pitied us all, and went away without telling us his name.
EfĂm realized this was Elisha's work and understood how his friend had reached Jerusalem ahead of him:
God may or may not have accepted my pilgrimage, but He has certainly accepted his!
Chapter 12. Understanding the true meaning of faith
When EfĂm returned home, he found his son had mismanaged the household and spent money foolishly. Angry words were exchanged, and EfĂm struck his son. The next morning, while going to complain to the village Elder, EfĂm stopped at Elisha's house. Elisha's wife cheerfully reported that her husband had returned safely and was tending his beehives. When EfĂm found Elisha in the apiary, he saw his friend standing among the swarming bees with arms outstretched and bald head shining, just as he had appeared at the Holy Sepulchre. EfĂm spoke cryptically about their respective journeys:
My feet have been there, but whether my soul, or another's, has been there more truly...
Though Elisha tried to change the subject, EfĂm had learned the profound lesson of their parallel journeys:
He now understood that the best way to keep one's vows to God... is for each man while he lives to show love and do good to others.