Mother

n in the factory yard with two pots of eatables from Marya's culinary establish

heir new caterer. Some of them ap

business,

h alarm by their cautious condolence, while still others awoke a responsive echo in her by openly and bitterly abusing the manager and th

uld have your son hanged! Let

last of death. She made no reply, glanced at his smal

alked in an undertone, with great animation; the foremen walked about with careworn faces, pok

er. He walked with one hand in his poc

men followed him, and plied the

promenade, Gris

o us fellows!" c

e a bodyguard to escort us," said

" exclaimed a tall, one-eyed workingman in a loud, bi

her. "They come and drag them away in broad day

ing not to hear the angry exclamations showered upon them from all sides. Three workmen carryin

there, f

Samoylov nodded to h

gory, the servant of

a smile, moved her, and she unconsciously felt for them the pitying affection of a mother. It please

returned home and found it bare, chilly and disagreeable. She moved about from corner to corner, unable to find a resting place, and not knowing what to do

tled softly and noiselessly upon the pane. Sliding down and melting, t

and admitted Sashenka. She had not seen her for a long while, and th

a time, to relieve her solitude for a part of the night.

he girl, smiling, "with Nikolay

vich told me yesterday that he had been released, but I k

e to change my dress before Yegor Ivanovi

re all

ught the

them to me!" cried t

like leaves from a tree, down fluttered a lot of thin paper parcels o

tout. Oh, what a heap of them you h

self. The mother noticed that her cheeks were shrunken,

there you are carrying a load like that for seven ve

ght? He wasn't very much worried, was he?" Sashenka asked the question without looki

other. "You can rest assur

is!" murmured t

her. "Why, you are all in a shiver! I'll

a faint smile. "But don't you trouble

where she busied herself with the samovar. The girl followed into the kitchen,

tormenting. We stay a week, five weeks. We know how much there is to be done. The people are waiting for knowledge. We're in a positi

nd with a sigh she answered the question herself. "No o

girl briefly, s

urst of excitement. Quickly wiping her charcoal-blackened hand

How could you live the kind of life

e heard on the porch. The mother started; the girl

walked into the wrong house, came here by accident, fainted away

at for?" asked th

Sashenka listening.

, wet and ou

hat's the best thing in life, gr

e kitchen. He slowly removed his

declared that she would starve herself to death if he did not ask her pardon. And for eight days she went withou

d for eight days in succession?

a stoical shrug of her shoulders. Her composure and her st

ou had died?"

etly. "He did beg my pardon after all. One

lowly. "Here are we women who a

Yegor from the other room. "Is the

movar and talked

d strong; for he lived to be seventy-three years old, never having suffered from any ailment whatsoever. In weight he reache

s son?" exclai

ortal. How did yo

Voskresensk

rywoman! Who we

bors. I am

ught your face was familiar! Why, I had my

Sashenka looked at them and smiled, and began to prepare the tea. The c

self, talking about old times. It

n like this in your house!" said Sashenka. "But it

city?" the mother

es

you are so tired. Stay here overnight. Yegor Ivano

go," said th

lady must disappear. It would be bad if s

n she go? B

," said Yeg

ce of rye bread, salted it, and started to

? Both you and Natasha.

said Yegor. "Aren't

cour

hen at Yegor, and said in a

f tea, granny," Ye

egor's hand in silence, and walked out into the kitchen

And taking hold of the latch, she suddenly turned

her in silence, an

e girl, and nodding

iously through the window. Wet flakes of sno

"He used to sit with his feet sprawling, and blow noisily into

sat down, and looking at Yegor with a mournful expression in her eyes,

he was stronger before. Besides, she has had a delicate bringing up. It seems to me she ha

is

n and a big scoundrel, according to what she says. I

ho

have not yet been able. When he is free, she

r replied after a pause. "Pas

r the girl, and looking at her guest

to have see

here, and the whole day to-morrow, from early morning, I shall h

. She felt hurt that the news should have come to her, not from her son, but from

asy for us, I admit. There, for instance, is the case of a friend of mine who returned a short while ago from exile. When he went through Novgorod, his wife and child awaited him in Smolensk, and when he arrived in Smolensk, they were already in prison in Moscow. Now it's the wife's tur

exile, told of various accidents and misfortunes, of the slaughters in prisons, and of hunger in Siberia. The mother looked at him, list

s get down

out the way in which the mother intended to smuggle the literature into

grew slowly, and after standing for five years on the unstable, putrescent soil, they dried up, fell down, and rotted away. She looked at this picture, and a vague feeling of insufferable sadness overcame her. The figure of a girl with a sharp, determined face stood before her. Now the figure walks somewhere in the darkness amid the sn

ny! Let's go to bed!

efully into the kitchen, carrying away

after breakfast,

ou where you got all these hereti

of your business!'"

contrary, they are profoundly convinced that this is precisely their busi

t tell,

put you i

ood at least for that," she said with a

look upon her. "A good person

you, even if I were good," t

then he walked up to her and said: "This is hard

"Maybe only for those who understand, it's easier. But I underst

means that everybody needs you, everybo

and laughed withou