Our children want to live honorably, according to reason, and we
have abandoned them; we walked away, yes! Go, Nilovna!"
"My dear ones!" she said, looking at them all with tearful eyes.
"The life is for our children and the earth is for them."
"Go, Nilovna, take this staff and lean upon it!" said Sizov, giving
her the fragment of the flag pole.
All looked at the mother with sadness and respect. A hum of
sympathy accompanied her. Sizov silently put the people out of her
way, and they silently moved aside, obeying a blind impulse to
follow her. They walked after her slowly, exchanging brief, subdued
remarks on the way. Arrived at the gate of her house, she turned to
them, leaning on the fragment of the flag pole, and bowed in gratitude.
"Thank you!" she said softly. And recalling the thought which she
fancied had been born in her heart, she said: "Our Lord Jesus Christ
would not have been, either, if people had not perished for his sake."
The crowd looked at her in silence.
She bowed to the people again, and went into her house, and Sizov,
drooping his head, went in with her.
The people stood at the gates and talked. Then they began to depart
slowly and quietly.
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