Two little girls, Malasha and Akoulya, have been dressed up by their parents for Easter. They have just come from church. They meet and start to play with one another. Soon Akoulya warns Malasha to step into a puddle carefully so that her dress will not get dirty. Malasha could not help it and splashed dirt on Akoulya's dress. Akoulys's mother comes out and asks the child how she got so dirty. Akoulya tells her that it was Malesha's fault. The mother grabs Malesha and hits her on the back of the neck. Malesha starts to howl, and that brings her mother who demands to know why her daughter is being beaten. The two women start arguing and then the men come out. It almost comes to blows when Akoulya's grandmother comes out and asks them why they are fighting.
'What are you thinking of, friends? Is it right to behave so? On a day like this, too! It is a time for rejoicing, and not for such folly as this.' (pg 1)
However, they would not listen to the old woman. In the meantime, Akoulya had wiped the mud off her dress and she and Malesha started digging a canal for the water to escape from the puddle. They followed the stream into the group of men who were fighting. They had totally forgotten their argument and were having a great time with each other. The old woman told the men
'Are you not ashamed of yourselves? To go fighting on account of these lassies, when they themselves have forgotten all about it, and are playing happily together. Dear little souls! They are wiser than you!" (pg 1)
The men laughed and returned to thier homes. The moral of the story is
Unless you change your ways and become as little children (easily forgiving the wrongs of others) you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
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