Nina Krivosheina. FOUR-THIRDS OF OUR LIVES (№ 426138)

He took with him some food and in the summer, alone, went through the dense forest, along the paths to this monastery, and the course there was forty versts. He walked for almost a day, and told me that he never had any fear, and sometimes he even slept in the woods. Coming to the monastery, he went to the abbot, who loved him very much, sat with him for a long time, walked around the monastery with the monks, went with them to the field, to the church, to the services and, having lived like this for a week, peacefully and without any doubt went home; but at home, too, no one thought to worry about him - after all, he went "on a pilgrimage", and nothing could be. We must think that there was almost no evil hooliganism in the village at that time, life went according to the long-established Orthodox calendar, everyone knew the unwritten charter of life; no one would have thought to offend or simply frighten a boy who was walking alone through the forest to a distant monastery, and even more so the landlord's son.