CHAPTER 30

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Since that day many years have passed. Turgen and Marfa saw the children grow up, and as the children grew their own well-being increased. Wealth was never theirs, but they had enough for their wants, and any visitor was assured of a welcome place by their fire.

The Yakuts, conscious of their guilt before Turgen, did their best to make up for their past behavior and show their respect. Even the shamanist, now very old, came one day to beg forgiveness. When Turgen said to him, “We’ll forget the past. Come and be my guest,” the shamanist was so touched that he told everyone “Turgen is one of the kindest of men. There is more wisdom in his little finger than in my old head.”

So the old injustice was buried.

Gradually others came to settle near Marfa’s yurta, until a large settlement sprang up around the lake. As they planned, Turgen and his family lived in the valley during the winter and in the mountains during the summer. Though a great change had come into his life, he did not forget his rams but cared for them as before. When age made him feebler, he had a fine assistant in Tim who was young and strong.

Turgen lived to see his Lad the leader of a herd of his own. Then one day, not long after Tim was married, he departed quietly for the other world where Marfa had already gone.

“Do not forget my poor rams and God will be merciful to you,” were the last words he spoke.

Tim and Aksa were faithful to their promise. In time there were four herds in the mountains instead of one. And the rams no longer fled pell-mell at the sight of human beings. Perhaps, as Turgen believed, this was because of Lad and the things he had learned during the period of his accident. Whatever the explanation, the rams of this region lived in peace and flourished, while the people too knew comfort and abundance. Surely the Great Spirit, who saw all, had given His blessing.

* * * * *

_So it was that I, a visitor by accident to Turgen’s mountain country, found proof that my teacher spoke truly when he said: “Everywhere there is life and everywhere there are warm human hearts.”_

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:

Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.

Perceived typographical errors have been corrected.

Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.

Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.

New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.

Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.