The staid people who earned good pay waxed wroth as they read the
literature, and said abusively: "Breeders of rebellion! For such
business they ought to get their eyes blacked." And they carried
the pamphlets to the office.
The young people read the proclamations eagerly, and said excitedly:
"It's all true!"
The majority, broken down with their work, and indifferent to
everything, said lazily: "Nothing will come of it. It is impossible!"
But the leaflets made a stir among the people, and when a week
passed without their getting any, they said to one another:
"None again to-day! It seems the printing must have stopped."
Then on Monday the leaflets appeared again; and again there was a
dull buzz of talk among the workingmen.
In the taverns and the factory strangers were noticed, men whom
no one knew. They asked questions, scrutinized everything and
everybody; looked around, ferreted about, and at once attracted
universal attention, some by their suspicious watchfulness, others
by their excessive obtrusiveness.
The mother knew that all this commotion was due to the work of her
son Pavel. She saw how all the people were drawn together about
him.
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