"Hurrah!" cried Johannes; and the others, who had just before been shouting; "Hurrah for Golgotha!" now shouted "Hurrah for Markus!" They were all greatly excited and glad to see him free. "Good-evening," said Markus, without giving token, himself, of being particularly glad. He wore again his customary workman's suit. From all sides hands were held out to him. "I hadn't thought it," said Jan, "that they'd let you out of their clutches again. How did you manage it?" "Let 'im have something to eat, first," said Vrouw Roodhuis. "Aren't you hungry, man? You couldn't have been in clover there." "I shouldn't have had any appetite with all those mad folks about," remarked another woman. "And then, too, when they wanted to poison you!" "Yes, I am hungry," said Markus. And then bread and milk were given him. "Why did you come here again?" asked Marjon. Markus replied simply, "I had something more to say." After he had eaten, he asked, "Is there a meeting to-night? Who called it?" "The politicians," replied the young typographer. "Felbeck wants to be President of the Republic," said the man in brown. "Is there to be a debate?" asked Markus. "Listen! Hakkema is coming, too. Oh, there'll be a racket!" said Jan. "You might say a little something, too, Markus," said Roodhuis. "You must give that confounded military set a good thrashing, just such as you give the pious." "I never have given the pious a 'thrashing,'" said Markus. "That's a damn shame!" said the man with the sandals. "Religion is the root of all evil." "No, it's militarism," said Roodhuis. "No, alcohol," said the young typographer. "Neither of them! It's eating meat that does it," said a pale, slim little woman, not yet twenty. "First you slaughter animals, then you eat them, then you drink, and then you murder and steal. One thing leads to another." "So long, I say, as the people let themselves be taxed and fleeced by kings and priests, so long as they bow to a boss--whether they call him patron or God makes no difference--so long shall we remain in misery." "Now, Markus," said Jan, "put in an oar yourself. You know better how to pull than the rest of 'em, I should say." "Well, I will tell you a story," said Markus, "if you will promise to remember it, and not ask an explanation." "Why not an explanation?" asked the man in brown. "What does that mean? Is it a riddle?" "I would just as soon be silent," said Markus. "Come, now, Markus, pitch in! We won't ask you any more than you want to tell us." "Listen, then," said Markus; and he began his story in a tone which constrained them all to silence. "Once there were some field-laborers who were very poor--so poor that when they were asked how, with all their children, they could make both ends meet, they replied, 'The churchyard helps us out.'