she shouted.

"Good-by, comrades!" they called from among the soldiers.

A broken, manifold echo responded to them. It resounded from the
windows and the roofs.

The mother felt some one pushing her breast. Through the mist in her
eyes she saw the little officer. His face was red and strained, and he
was shouting to her:

"Clear out of here, old woman!"

She looked down on him, and at his feet saw the flag pole broken in two
parts, a piece of red cloth on one of them. She bent down and picked
it up. The officer snatched it out of her hands, threw it aside, and
shouted again, stamping his feet:

"Clear out of here, I tell you!"

A song sprang up and floated from among the soldiers:

"Arise, awake, you workingmen!"

Everything was whirling, rocking, trembling. A thick, alarming noise,
resembling the dull hum of telegraph wires, filled the air. The officer
jumped back, screaming angrily:

"Stop the singing, Sergeant Kraynov!"

The mother staggered to the fragment of the pole, which he had thrown
down, and picked it up again.

"Gag them!"

The song became confused, trembled, expired. Somebody took the mother
by the shoulders, turned her around, and shoved her from the back.

"Go, go! Clear the street!" shouted the officer.

About ten paces from her, the mother again saw a thick crowd of people.
They were howling, grumbling, whistling, as they backed down the
street. The yards were drawing in a number of them.

"Go, you devil!" a young soldier with a big mustache shouted right into
the mother's ear. He brushed against her and shoved her onto the
sidewalk. She moved away, leaning on the flag pole. She went quickly
and lightly, but her legs bent under her. In order not to fall she
clung to walls and fences. People in front were falling back alongside
of her, and behind her were soldiers, shouting: "Go, go!"

The soldiers got ahead of her; she stopped and looked around. Down the
end of the street she saw them again scattered in a thin chain,
blocking the entrance to the square, which was empty. Farther down
were more gray figures slowly moving against the people. She wanted to
go back; but uncalculatingly went forward again, and came to a narrow,
empty by-street into which she turned. She stopped again. She sighed
painfully, and listened. Somewhere ahead she heard the hum of voices.
Leaning on the pole she resumed her walk. Her eyebrows moved up and
down, and she suddenly broke in