Chapter 49 20

A loud knock on the door woke the mother up. Mother opened her eyes and listened sideways. Someone was knocking patiently and continuously on the kitchen door. At this time, the sky was still very dark, and the surroundings were silent. Because of this silence, the persistent knocking on the door easily caused panic among the people in the room. Mother hurriedly put on her clothes, walked quickly to the kitchen, stood at the door and asked: "who is it?" "It's me!" a stranger's voice answered. "Who?" "Please open the door!" The person outside the door begged in a low voice with an extremely sincere tone.

Mother turned the lock, pushed the door open on her knees—and Ignaty entered. He said happily: "Oh, I didn't knock on the wrong door!" His body was full of mud spots, his face was a little gray, his eyes were sunken, and only his curly hair still protruded from under the hat in all directions. "Something happened to us!" He closed the door behind his back and whispered. "I know……" This surprised the young man.He blinked and asked: "When did you know that?" His mother told him briefly and quickly what she had seen. "Are those two taken away too? The two with you?"

"They're not at home, they're reporting for duty—they're recruits! Including Uncle Mihailo, five of them were arrested..." He took a breath through his nose and said with a smile: "I'm left. They must be checking me out." "Then how can you escape?" asked the mother. Then the door to the room opened slightly. "Me?" said Ignaty, sitting down on the stool and looking around. "Before they came, the forest watcher came knocking on the window and said: 'Be careful, someone is coming to you...'" He smiled slightly, then wiped his face with the skirt of his coat, and continued:

"Well, but Uncle Mihailo was very calm, and he said to me at once: 'Go to town, Ignaty! Do you remember that old woman?' He wrote it for me with his own hand. A note. 'Now, take it and go!...' I hid in the bushes and crawled there motionless, and then I heard them coming! There were so many of them that I could hear them from afar, these devils! The factory was surrounded. I lay there in the bushes—they just walked past me! So, I got up immediately and ran! Well, I walked for a whole day and two nights in one breath." He seemed triumphant, his brown eyes full of triumph, his thick lips quivering with excitement.

"I'll make you some tea right away!" Mother said hurriedly, taking the tea stove. "I give you the note..." He raised one leg vigorously, frowned, his whole body was exhausted, and put his leg on the stool wheezingly. At this moment Nicholas appeared at the door. "Comrade! Hello!" He said with narrowed eyes. "let me help you!" He bent down and began to undo his muddy leggings. "Ah..." The young man moved his legs a few times and responded in a low voice.His eyes blinked at his mother in surprise. But the mother didn't pay attention to his gaze, and said to him with concern:

"Foot needs to be rubbed with watega..." "Yes!" Nicholas agreed. Ignaty sniffed sheepishly. Nicholas found the note, opened it hastily, held the gray crumpled note before his eyes, and read: Mother, don't give up your work, please tell that tall lady, please don't forget to write more about our work!Goodbye!Rebin. Nicholas slowly lowered the hand holding the note, and said softly: "It's amazing! . . . " Ignaty looked at them, and quietly moved his toes with mud; the mother turned her face wet from tears, looked at a basin of water, walked up to the boy, sat down on the floor herself, and then reached for his feet. ,—but he hastily shrank his feet under the stool and asked in surprise:

"What are you doing?" "Stand out your feet!" "I'll get the firewine," said Nikolai. Hearing this, the young man shrank his feet even more, and said vaguely: "Why...you're not in the hospital...sorry..." So the mother started to untie the gaiter on the other foot for him. Ignaty sniffed loudly, shook his head uncomfortably, opened his mouth comically, and looked down at his mother. "Did you know?" she said tremulously, "Mikhailo Ivanovitch was beaten..." "Really?" said the boy in a low voice, terrified.

"Isn't it? He was beaten badly when he was brought here, and when he arrived in the village of Nikolskoye, he was beaten again by the police officer. The chief of police slapped him in the face and then kicked him hard Kick him...and get covered in blood!" "They're good at this!" said the young man, frowning.At the same time, his shoulders trembled. "So I'm afraid of them like a man-eating demon! Did the people in the village beat him too?" "One person hit him, and he was ordered by the director, but no one else did it, and some people said, you can't hit people... Sigh!"

"Well,—the country people gradually understand who should stand on which side and why they should stand on this side." "There are sensible people over there..." "Nowhere? There's nowhere else to go! There's such a man everywhere—but it's hard to find, isn't it?" Nicholas came in with a bottle of firewine, added charcoal to the stove, and went out again quietly. Ignaty looked at his back with curious eyes, and asked his mother quietly: "Is this gentleman a doctor?" "There are no gentlemen in this kind of work, everyone is comrade..."

"I think it's weird!" Ignaty said with a half-believing smile. "What are you wondering about?" "That's it. One kind of person wants to slap people's ears; the other kind of person is willing to wash people's feet. So what is between these two kinds of people?" The door leading to the room opened, and Nikolai stood in the doorway and said: "In the middle is the fellow who licks the hand of the beater and sucks the blood of the beaten,— That's the one in the middle! " Ignaty looked at him respectfully, was silent for a while, and then said:

"Probably so!" The young man stood up, put his foot on the floor firmly and boldly, tried to walk a few steps, and said: "It seems to have changed a pair of feet! Thank you..." Afterwards they were sitting together in the dining room drinking tea, and Ignaty said emphatically: "I've delivered newspapers before, and I can walk pretty well." "Are there many people reading the papers?" asked Nicholas. "Everyone who can read reads it, even the rich. Of course they don't read ours. ... They know very well that the peasants are going to use their blood to wash away the landlords and rich people on the ground. They want their own Come and divide the land—they want to divide it so that there will never be master and servant again—isn't it so! If it weren't for that, why would they fight? Isn't it?" He even grew angry as he talked, and looked suspiciously and questioningly into Nicholas' face. Nikolai just smiled silently. "If today everyone rises up to fight -- and wins, but tomorrow there are rich and poor -- why bother? We know it well -- wealth, like the sand in a river, will not stand still If the ground stays there, it must flow everywhere! No, if that's the case, then why bother! Isn't it?" "But don't be angry!" Mother said to him jokingly. Nicholas said thoughtfully: "How can you get the leaflets about Raybin's arrest over there as quickly as possible?" Ignaty listened with pricked ears. "Are there any flyers?" he asked. "Have." "Give it to me, I'll deliver it!" The young man rubbed his hands and volunteered. Mother didn't look at him, but smiled slightly. "Didn't you say that you were tired and scared? Huh?" Ignaty stroked his curly hair with his large palm and said solemnly: "Fear is fear, work is work! Why are you laughing? Oh? You!" "Ah, my child!" exclaimed the mother, delighted by his words, and could not help crying. The originally calm young man was suddenly embarrassed and smiled dryly. "Look, I'm a child again!" Nicholas said kindly: "You can't go there anymore..." "Why? Then where am I going?" Ignaty asked worriedly. "Someone will go for you, and you have only to tell that person in detail what is to be done and how to do it—will you?" "Okay!" Ignaty reluctantly agreed. "We'll get you a decent passport and a job as a forest watcher." The young man raised his head immediately after hearing this, and asked him worriedly: "If the country folks come to chop wood, or something... what shall I do? Catch them? Tie them up? I can't do that..." Mother and Nicholas laughed at the same time. This made Ignaty uneasy, and he felt a little uncomfortable. "Don't worry!" Nicholas reassured him. "Keeping you don't have to catch them and tie them up!" "Very well then!" said Ignaty, somewhat relieved, and smiling cheerfully. "I'd better go to the factory. I heard that the people there are very smart..." Mother stood up, looked at the window thoughtfully, and said emotionally: "Oh, that's life! Cry five times a day and laugh five times! Now, Ignaty, is it over? Go to bed, and don't think of anything else!" "I dont want to sleep……" "Go to sleep, go..." "The rules here are very fierce! Well, I'm going to sleep...Thank you for giving me tea and sugar, and treating me so well..." He lay down on his mother's bed, combed his hair with his fingers, and said vaguely: "It's going to stink of asphalt from now on! It's no use at all... I don't want to sleep at all. . . . That's a good thing he said about the people in the middle. . . . Those devils . . . . . . " As he spoke, he snored heavily.He raised his eyebrows high, his mouth half-opened, and fell asleep peacefully.