week's wages in his pocket. He walked and walked, see~
ing nothing, splashing through mud and water. Later on
he sat down upon a step and hid his face in his hands and
for half an hour or so he did not move. Now and then he
would whisper to himself: "Dead! _Dead!"_

Finally, he got up and walked on again. It was about
sunset, and he went on and on until it was dark, when he
was stopped by a railroad-crossing. The gates were down,
and a long train of freight-cars was thundering by. He
stood and watched it; and all at once a wild impulse seized
him, a thought that had been lurking within him, un~
spoken, unrecognized, leaped into sudden life. He started
down the track, and when he was past the gate-keeper's
shanty he sprang forward and swung himself on to one of
the cars.

By and by the train stopped again, and Jurgis sprang
down and ran under the car, and hid himself upon the
truck. Here he sat, and when the train started again, he
fought a battle with his soul. He gripped his hands and
set his teeth together -- he had not wept, and he would
not -- not a tear! It was past and over, and he was
done with it -- he would fling it off his shoulders, be free
of it, the whole business, that night. It should go like a
black, hateful nightmare, and in the morning he would be
a new man. And every time that a thought of it assailed
him -- a tender memory, a trace of a tear -- he rose up,
cursing with rage, and pounded it down.

He was fighting for his life; he gnashed his teeth
together in his desperation. He had been a fool, a fool!
He had wasted his life, he had wrecked himself, with his
accursed weakness; and now he was done with it -- he
would tear it out of him, root and branch! There should
be no more tears and no more tenderness; he had had
enough of them -- they had sold him into slavery! Now
he was going to be free, to tear off his shackles, to rise up
and fight. He was glad that the end had come -- it had
to come some time, and it was just as well now. This was
no world for women and children, and the sooner they got
out of it the better for them. Whatever Antanas might

[[253]]

p252 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p253w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p254

v?