she stands. . . . He sees her
plainly. . . . All too well he knows that dirty
sun-burned face plowed through by a thousand wrinkles,
those great blood-shot eyes with the swollen, sore
lids. . . .

"He remembers her, yes, he remembers. . . . He was
still a little boy then, when the teacher carried him
to school in his arms. He cried then and hung tightly
with both hands to the apron of his mother.

"Mother! . . . this woman his mother?"

And so the emotions of the boy are set forth in memories telling us of
his mother before she was insane and now, when she is known to all
the village as the "crazy Trajna." The time when he found her insane
is described. It was raining and he was hurrying home from school.
Suddenly he sees his mother near his father's house:

"There at the corner she stands. . . . Trembling for cold
she seeks protection under any roof. . . . The boy stands
as rooted to the ground, without turning his gaze from
her. The water flows in streams from his coat. She has
turned her glassy eyes on him. Slowly as though
following some inner force she comes closer to him. He
is not able to move from the spot; something
unspeakable gleams in those glassy eyes. . . .

"Now he feels in her the mother. . . . His heart beats as
though to break. Always closer to him she comes. A hot
wave of blood flows through all his limbs and rises to
his head. He trembles as in fever.

"Suddenly all fear leaves him. He assumes a waiting
position and looks directly into her eyes.

"Now she stands close before him. She looks at him.
Away! These eyes! this look! He wishes to fall weeping
into her arms. . . . To weep, yes, to weep . . . to weep
and to kiss.

"He is in the impulse to carry out his purpose when
she suddenly takes his hand. With a quick push he
tears himself from her embrace and runs away as
rapidly as he can.

"It seems as though she ran after him with
outstretched arms and blowing hair, always faster and
faster, always grasping more heavily. It seemed to him
as though he heard her terrible voice, hoarse with
weariness, calling 'Joselle,' 'Joselle' . . ."

The father has taken a new wife and the "crazy Trajna" is no longer a
member o