bunks, one above the other, each with a straw mattress
and a pair of gray blankets -- the latter stiff as boards
with filth, and alive with fleas, bed-bugs, and lice. When
Jurgis lifted up the mattress he discovered beneath it a
layer of scurrying roaches, almost as badly frightened as
himself.

Here they brought him more "duffers and dope," with
the addition of a bowl of soup. Many of the prisoners
had their meals brought in from a restaurant, but Jurgis
had no money for that. Some had books to read and cards
to play, with candles to burn by night, but Jurgis was all
alone in darkness and silence. He could not sleep again;
there was the same maddening procession of thoughts that
lashed him like whips upon his naked back. When night
fell he was pacing up and down his cell like a wild beast
that breaks its teeth upon the bars of its cage. Now and
then in his frenzy he would fling himself against the walls
of the place, beating his hands upon them. They cut him
and bruised him -- they were cold and merciless as the men
who had built them.

In the distance there was a church-tower bell that tolled
the hours one by one. When it came to midnight Jurgis
was lying upon the floor with his head in his arms, listen~
ing. Instead of falling silent at the end, the bell broke
into a sudden clangor. Jurgis raised his head; what
could that mean -- a fire? God! Suppose there were to
be a fire in this jail! But then he made out a melody in
the ringing; there were chimes. And they seemed to
waken the city -- all around, far and near, there were bells,
ringing wild music; for fully a minute Jurgis lay lost in
wonder, before, all at once, the meaning of it broke over
him -- that this was Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve -- he had forgotten it entirely! There
was a breaking of flood-gates, a whirl of new memories and
new griefs rushing into his mind. In far Lithuania they
had celebrated Christmas; and it came to him as if it had
been yesterday -- himself a little child, with his lost
brother and his dead father in the cabin in the deep black
forest, where the snow fell all day and all night and buried

[[189]]

p188 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p189w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p190

v?