Is there such a
law as gives our manager the right to make war upon mosquitoes with
our kopecks?"
"Think!" said Makhotin, with a glimmer in his narrow eyes. "Three
years ago these sharpers collected a tax to build a bath house.
Three thousand eight hundred rubles is what they gathered in. Where
are those rubles? And where is the bath house?"
Pavel explained the injustice of the tax, and the obvious advantage
of such a procedure to the factory owners; and both of his visitors
went away in a surly mood.
The mother, who had gone with them to the door, said, laughing:
"Now, Pasha, the old people have also begun to come to seek wisdom
from you."
Without replying, Pavel sat down at the table with a busy air and
began to write. In a few minutes he said to her: "Please go to the
city immediately and deliver this note."
"Is it dangerous?" she asked.
"Yes! A newspaper is being published for us down there! That
'Muddy Penny' story must go into the next issue."
"I'll go at once," she replied, beginning hurriedly to put on her wraps.
This was the first commission her son had given her. She was happy
that he spoke to her so openly about the matter, and that she might
be useful to him in his work.
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