es surrounding it have long been overgrown; the
grey wooden crosses lie fallen and rotting under their once painted
gables; the stone slabs are all displaced, as though some one were
pushing them up from behind; two or three bare trees give a scanty
shade; the sheep wander unchecked among the tombs.... But among them is
one untouched by man, untrampled by beast, only the birds perch upon it
and sing at daybreak. An iron railing runs round it; two young
fir-trees have been planted, one at each end. Yevgeny Bazarov is buried
in this tomb. Often from the little village not far off, two quite
feeble old people come to visit it--a husband and wife. Supporting one
another, they move to it with heavy steps; they go up to the railing,
fall down, and remain on their knees, and long and bitterly they weep,
and yearn and intently gaze at the dumb stone, under which their son is
lying; they exchange some brief word, wipe away the dust from the
stone, set straight a branch of a fir-tree, and pray again, and cannot
tear themselves from this place, where they seem to be nearer to their
son, to their memories of him.... Can it be that their prayers, their
tears are fruitless? Can it be that love, sacred, devoted love, is not
all-powerful? Oh, no! However passionate, sinning, and rebellious the
heart hidden in the tomb, the flowers growing over it peep serenely at
us with their innocent eyes; they tell us not of eternal peace alone,
of that great peace of 'indifferent' nature; tell us too of eternal
reconciliation and of life without end.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FATHERS AND CHILDREN***

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