ABSTRACT
This toiler lived in the woods, and for thirty years he had worked for God, and no matter how hard the Unclean One tried, no way could he confuse him. Among themselves the devils began thinking how to do it. They thought and they thought and this is what they contrived: One of the Unclean Ones turned himself into a pilgrim and set out to pass by the cell of the toiler and another came toward him, and attacked him as if he were a bandit, and he began choking him. The toiler heard the noise and shouted, grabbed his ax, and rushed to help. But he saw the bandit running from him in one direction and the other devil, who was the pilgrim, was lying there groaning and scarcely breathing. "Help me," he pleaded, "Take me into your cell until I can gather my strength. That cursed one nearly choked me." So the toiler took him into his cell and the Unclean One lived there a day or two, and then he said to the old man, "Yours is a work of salvation! There is much grace in it. I should also like to toil for God. I shall leave my wife and children and come and place myself under your command."
