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he gave it to her,’ the captain broke into loud sobs at the
thought of how Ilusha had given up his cannon to his moth-
er. The poor, crazy creature was bathed in noiseless tears,
hiding her face in her hands.
The boys, seeing that the father would not leave the coffin
and that it was time to carry it out, stood round it in a close
circle and began to lift it up.
‘I don’t want him to be buried in the churchyard,’ Sne-
giryov wailed suddenly; ‘I’ll bury him by the stone, by our
stone! Ilusha told me to. I won’t let him be carried out!’ He
had been saying for the last three days that he would bury
him by the stone, but Alyosha, Krassotkin, the landlady, her
sister and all the boys interfered.
‘What an idea, bury him by an unholy stone, as though
he had hanged himself!’ the old landlady said sternly. ‘There
in the churchyard the ground has been crossed. He’ll be
prayed for there. One can hear the singing in church and
the deacon reads so plainly and verbally that it will reach
him every time just as though it were read over his grave.’
At last the captain made a gesture of despair as though
to say, ‘Take him where you will.’ The boys raised the coffin,
but as they passed the mother, they stopped for a moment
and lowered it that she might say good-bye to Ilusha. But
on seeing that precious little face, which for the last three
days she had only looked at from a distance, she trembled
all over and her grey head began twitching spasmodically
over the coffin.
‘Mother, make the sign of the cross over him, give him
your blessing, kiss him,’ Nina cried to her. But her head still