filth, falsehood, and
cowardice. All people are sick; they are afraid to live; they wander
about as in a mist. Everyone feels only his own toothache. But lo, and
behold! Here is a Man coming and illuminating life with the light of
reason, and he shouts: 'Oh, ho! you straying roaches! It's time, high
time, for you to understand that all your interests are one, that
everyone has the need to live, everyone has the desire to grow!' The
Man who shouts this is alone, and therefore he cries aloud; he needs
comrades, he feels dreary in his loneliness, dreary and cold. And at
his call the stanch hearts unite into one great, strong heart, deep and
sensitive as a silver bell not yet cast. And hark! This bell rings
forth the message: 'Men of all countries, unite into one family! Love
is the mother of life, not hate!' My brothers! I hear this message
sounding through the world!"

"And I do, too!" cried Pavel.

The mother compressed her lips to keep them from trembling, and shut
her eyes tight so as not to cry.

"When I lie in bed at night or am out walking alone--everywhere I hear
this sound, and my heart rejoices. And the earth, too--I know
it--weary of injustice and sorrow, rings out like a bell, responding to
the call, and trembles benignly, greeting the new sun arising in the
breast of Man."

Pavel rose, lifted his hand, and was about to say something, but the
mother took his other hand, and pulling him down whispered in his ear:

"Don't disturb him!"

"Do you know?" said the Little Russian, standing in the doorway, his
eyes aglow with a bright flame, "there is still much suffering in store
for the people, much of their blood will yet flow, squeezed out by the
hands of greed; but all that--all my suffering, all my blood, is a
small price for that which is already stirring in my breast, in my
mind, in the marrow of my bones! I am already rich, as a star is rich
in golden rays. And I will bear all, I will suffer all, because there
is within me a joy which no one, which nothing can ever stifle! In
this joy there is a world of strength!"

They drank tea and sat around the table until midnight, and conversed
heart to heart and harmoniously about life, about people, and about the
future.

CHAPTER XVI

Whenever a thought was clear to the mother, she would find confirmation
of the idea by drawing upon some of her rude, coarse experiences. She
now felt as on that day when her father said to her roughly: