10 The Brothers Karamazov
him.’
They all stood still by the big stone. Alyosha looked and
the whole picture of what Snegiryov had described to him
that day, how Ilusha, weeping and hugging his father, had
cried, ‘Father, father, how he insulted you,’ rose at once be-
fore his imagination. A sudden impulse seemed to come
into his soul. With a serious and earnest expression he
looked from one to another of the bright, pleasant faces of
Ilusha’s schoolfellows, and suddenly said to them:
‘Boys, I should like to say one word to you, here at this
place.’
The boys stood round him and at once bent attentive and
expectant eyes upon him.
‘Boys, we shall soon part. I shall be for some time with
my two brothers, of whom one is going to Siberia and the
other is lying at death’s door. But soon I shall leave this
town, perhaps for a long time, so we shall part. Let us make
a compact here, at Ilusha’s stone, that we will never forget
Ilusha and one another.
And whatever happens to us later in life, if we don’t meet
for twenty years afterwards, let us always remember how
we buried the poor boy at whom we once threw stones, do
you remember, by the bridge? and afterwards we all grew so
fond of him. He was a fine boy, a kindhearted, brave boy, he
felt for his father’s honour and resented the cruel insult to
him and stood up for him. And so in the first place, we will
remember him, boys, all our lives. And even if we are oc-
cupied with most important things, if we attain to honour
or fall into great misfortune — still let us remember how