. Just
wait a little while!"

"I've heard you say so before." The sounds dropped, and rose again.
The voice of Stepan rang out:

"You must do it this way--at first you must take each peasant aside and
speak to him by himself--for instance, to Makov Alesha, a lively
man--can read and write--was wronged by the police; Shorin Sergey, also
a sensible peasant; Knyazev, an honest, bold man, and that'll do to
begin with. Then we'll get a group together, we look about us--yes.
We must learn how to find her; and we ourselves must take a look at the
people about whom she spoke. I'll shoulder my ax and go off to the
city myself, making out I'm going there to earn money by splitting
wood. You must proceed carefully in this matter. She's right when she
says that the price a man has is according to his own estimate of
himself--and this is an affair in which you must set a high value on
yourself when once you take it up. There's that peasant! See! You
can put him even before God, not to speak of before a police
commissioner. He won't yield. He stands for his own firmly--up to his
knees in it. And Nikita, why his honor was suddenly pricked--a marvel?
No. If the people will set out in a friendly way to do something
together, they'll draw everybody after them."

"Friendly! They beat a man in front of your eyes, and you stand with
your mouths wide open."

"You just wait a little while. He ought to thank God we didn't beat
him ourselves, that man. Yes, indeed. Sometimes the authorities
compel you to beat, and you do beat. Maybe you weep inside yourself
with pity, but still you beat. People don't dare to decline from
beastliness--they'll be killed themselves for it. They command you,
'Be what I want you to be--a wolf, a pig'--but to be a man is
prohibited. And a bold man they'll get rid of--send to the next world.
No. You must contrive for many to get bold at once, and for all to
arise suddenly."

He whispered for a long time, now lowering his voice so that the mother
scarcely could hear, and now bursting forth powerfully. Then the woman
would stop him. "S-sh, you'll wake her."

The mother fell into a heavy dreamless sleep.

Tatyana awakened her in the early twilight, when the dusk still peered
through the window with blank eyes, and when brazen sounds of the
church bell floated and melted over the village in the gray, cold
stillness.

"I have prepared the samovar. Take some tea or you'll be cold if you
g