Bylica leaves to beg at the indulgence fair

Bylica leaves to beg at the indulgence fair in an episode that turns public poverty into a painful family encounter: Hanka discovers her father among the beggars and cannot persuade him to return home. His refusal makes clear that he has chosen a precarious independence over becoming a burden to his daughter.

Discovery among the beggars

While pausing by the graveyard to look for Józka, Hanka unexpectedly sees Bylica sitting in a row of beggars, stretching out his hands to passers-by and moaning for alms. The sight shocks her. At first she doubts her own eyes; then shame at finding her father begging in public overwhelms her.

Beyond the gates, beggars line a broad thoroughfare and call out in different ways. A young fiddler in a green peaked cap sings songs about kings and times gone by as a crowd gathers and coins fall into his hat. The scene places Bylica’s need within a busy public spectacle, where begging is visible, crowded, and part of the fair’s movement.

Hanka’s attempt to bring him home

Hanka pulls her scarf farther over her brow and approaches Bylica behind the carts, squatting beside him to hide their exchange from other people. She hisses at him, demands to know what he is doing, and orders him to come home at once. When he resists, she grips his collar and nearly drags him between the carts, insisting that he should be ashamed and return with her.

Bylica will not yield. He says he decided long ago not to burden Hanka when good people can help him. He intends to go out into the world like others, visit holy places, learn new things, and eventually bring back plenty of groszy. He gives Hanka a zloty to buy something fine for Pietruś, directing part of what he has gathered toward his grandson even as he rejects the homecoming she demands.

Escape and significance

Hanka tells Bylica to drop the little pouches before anyone sees them. He answers that he will do as he pleases and that hunger has changed what shame means to him. Then he breaks away, slips between carts and horses, and disappears. The crowd gathered on the square before the church makes it impossible for Hanka to find him again.

The encounter ends without reconciliation or rescue. Hanka’s attempt to protect her father from public disgrace collides with Bylica’s insistence that need has already forced him beyond that measure of shame. His departure is not simply flight from home: he frames it as a choice to seek aid, travel to holy places, and return with something for Pietruś, though the scene leaves his promised return uncertain.