Mother

o do, her head thrown backward. Bound up in her grief and the injured sense of her impotence, she cried long, gently, and monotonously, pouring out all the pain of her wound

like black threads on a spool; resentment and bitterness toward tho

s. She thought she heard, walking watchfully around the house, gray, heavy figures, with broad, red fac

d taken me, too

ds were low, indistinct, uncertain. The door opened and Rybin en

him away, did t

the dogs!" she r

but did me no harm beyond that. So they carried off Pavel, did they? The manager tipped the wink, the gendarme said 'Amen!' and l

cried the mother, rising to her fee

tand up for him

of

s of years; they have driven our hearts full of nails. We cannot unite at once. We must first extract f

leaving the mother to her grief, aggravat

humiliating, so lonely and void. During the last years she had become accustomed to live constantly in the expectation of something momentous, something good. Young people were circling around her, noisy, vigorous, full of life. Her so

e drippings from the roof filled the air with a doleful, wailing melody. The whole house appea

se noises; they no longer frightened her. A soft, joyous sensation thrilled her heart, and a vague hope q

th his face hidden behind the collar of his ov

out greeting the mother, his face gloom

e said, looking at the

vily and hoarsely said in a friendly basso, like an old

granny! You don

vna, with a sudden access o

face, and a clear, caressing look in his small gray eyes. He was like a samovar-rotund, short, with thick neck and short ar

'll be dressed in a mi

aid Samoylov thoughtfully, looking a

sed into the room,

jail this morning, g

as he there

s and begs you not to be alarmed. As a man travels on his way, he says, the jails constitute his resting places, established and m

e any others arrested bes

gor Ivanovich. "And we may expect about ten mor

" said Samoylo

mehow felt

ere alone,"

lf, she entered the room a

etain them long, if t

ether like fools. This is the way it is, granny. If we were now to cease smuggling our literature into the factory, the g

hould they?" the mo

s and there were papers; Pavel is not, and no books and no papers! Ergo, it was Pavel who distributed these books! Aha! Then they'll begin to

mother dejectedly. "O God

ice from the kitchen. "Now we must continue our work the same as befo

g. "We have first-rate literature. I saw to that myself.

body at the gates

ted of her. She understood that she could b

? What are

d in the door

you know Marya Kor

o. W

you can't get her to

r, you know," in

ved her hands

x. No! If they find out it comes

den idea, she began gla

ask Marya to make me her assistant. I have to earn my living, I have to work

her mission well and escape detection. Finally she exclaimed in triumph: "They'll fi

. Briskly rubbing his han

us! I say, granny, it's s

r, if this succeeds," said Samoylo

granny!" Yegor

in the factory, the authorities would be forced to recognize that it was not her son who

l," said Yegor, "tell hi

on, I assure you," sa

ped his hand an

rything, everything necess

t him in prison?" asked Ye

sighed and

, it can't

her ridiculous blunder, she also began to laugh in em

folk keeps you from seei

better man. The prison is our place of rest and study-things we have no time for when we are at large. I was in pr

y," she said, looking affec

To-morrow we'll deliver the matter to you-and the wheels that grind the centuried darkness to destruction wil

gorous handshake. "To my mother, I don't

," said Nilovna, wishing to please

was a prayer without words, one great thought of men, of all those people whom Pavel introduced into her life. It was as if they passed betwee

Korsunova. The peddler, noisy and greasy a

he stood up for all, and they all know it. Don't worry! They don't all say so, but they all know a good man when they see him. I was going to call on you right along, but had no time. I am always cooking and selling, but will end my days a beggar, I guess, all the same. My needs get the best of me, confound

e as your assistant," Vlasova br

ter hearing her friend's explanati

y all pity him. I'll tell you something. No good is going to come to the authorities from these arrests, mark my word! Look what's going on in the factory! Hear them talk! They are in an ugly mood, my dear! The officials imagine that when they've bitten at a man's heel, he wo