Mother

aturday Pavel's friends gathered in his house; and each meeting formed a step up a long stairway, which led

and tired, but always fresh and lively, in inexhaustible good spirits. The mother made stockings, and herself put them on

en live such a hard, outraged life, and yet there is more heart, more goodness in them

She was unable to finish her thought, and heaving a sigh looked silently into Natasha's face with a feeling of

ldest sister-unhappy, wretched thing-married a man much older than herself, very rich, a bore and greedy. But my mother I am sorry for! She's a simple woman like y

id the mother sadly

threw up her he

I feel such joy,

nds on the mother's shoulders she said with a deep voice

eat, joyous work we are doing! You will come

e heart of the mother. Rising fro

for that-ign

rew thinner and thinner. It seemed to his mother that when he spoke to Natasha or looked at

d imagining Natasha as her daug

their purpose. Vyesovshchikov always kept hurrying everybody on somewhere. He and the red-haired youth called Samoylov were the first to begin all disputes. On their side were always Ivan Bukin, with the round head and the white eyebrows and lashes, who looked as if

he impression of a stranger from a far-distant land. He spoke about simple matters-about family life, about children, about commerce, the police, the price of bread and meat-about everything by which peo

ed to this life and accept it as inevitable, that it displeased him, and that it aroused in him a calm determination to rearrange it after his own model. His face was yellowish, with thin, radiate wrinkles around hi

a thin, pale face. She was called Sashenka. There was something manly in her walk and movements; she kni

e socialists!" Her voice when sh

ka, half closing her eyes, said sternly and resolutely: "We must give up all our forces to

rds, wishing to revenge themselves on the Czar for liberating the peasant serfs, had vowed not to cut their hair until the Czar should be killed.

all departed,

are you a

before her, straight and

heavy sigh, and lowe

hey are against the C

room, ran his hand across h

need to

e in a low, serious voice. She

g bad; he is incap

off, and it became as familiar to her ear as scores of other words unintelligible to her.

ssian, with an expression of d

is! Flings her commands around!-You

Russian lau

struck the nail right

mother, he said with a

lue blood out of a per

emarked

d woman!" His

Russian corroborated. "Only she doe

shenka was most stern with Pavel, and that sometimes she even scolded him. Pavel smiled, was silent, and loo

people listened to the speeches of her son and the Little Russian, to the interesting stories of Sashenka, Natasha, Alexey Iva

s and music in perfect accord, sad and quaint in tune. These they sang in an undertone, pensively and seriously as c

hese songs in the street," s

t usually happened on the evenings when they read in the papers about the working people in other countries. Then their eyes sparkled with bold, animat

he French!" cried some one, as i

the workingmen of Italy!"

who could not have understood their language, they seemed to feel confident that th

eyes beaming, his love large

iends living in far-away Russia, workingmen who confess and believe in the same religion

en, and the Swedes, of the working people of all countries, as of their friends, as of people near to t

from the bondage of prejudice and who felt themselves the new masters of life. This feeling blended all into a single soul; it moved the mother, and, although inacces

"All are your comrades-the Armenians and the Jews and the Austrians. You spe

f the spirit in us, then your heart is seized with such joy, such happiness, such a great holiday sings in your bosom! And, mother, the Frenchman and the German feel the same way when they look upon life, and the Italian also. We are all children of one mother-the great, invincible idea of the brotherhood of the

firm faith came over the company more and more fr

truth a great dazzling light had been born into the

n, Nikolay would announce to his comrades: "Now we can hold our meetings

from the books. So greatly occupied were they that they hardly even took the time to wash. They ate their suppe

newspaper!" Pave

tant rushing from house to house, a passing from one book

!" said Vyesovshchikov onc

be caught in the snare?"

vel had no time, he chopped wood for her; once he came with a board on his shoulder, and quickly and skillfully replaced the rotten step on the po

other said

boarder. It will be better for both of you.

crowd yourself?" asked Pav

had trouble for I don't know what. Fo

se. If he comes

Russian moved i