The result always was that Stanislaus continued to do what his own
conscience urged him to do, and that Bilinski and Paul felt helpless
in the face of his quiet, fearless persistence. And that made them
the more vexed with him. They nicknamed him "The Jesuit," they
mimicked him, they sneered at him. He had a pretty hot temper
himself, but he kept himself well in hand, and was always kind and
pleasant with these cross-grained comrades. He was not the least bit
afraid. Whenever he thought that speaking would do any good, he
spoke up without hesitation. Many a time, when Paul taunted him
with acting in a way to bring discredit upon his name, he answered:

"No man shames his name by trying to please God. As for what men
may think or say, that does not matter much. Do you think we shall
bother much about that in eternity?"

There were two cousins of theirs who often stayed with the Kostkas;
one of them was also called Stanislaus, the other, who afterwards
rose to high rank in his native country, was named Rozrarewski.
These sided with Paul and did their best to help him in making
Stanislaus' life miserable.

It was not long before Paul went on from words to blows. One day
Stanislaus quietly tried to answer some of Paul's sneers. Paul
sprang at him in a rage and, striking out savagely, knocked him
down. Bilinski interfered, and when he had drawn off Paul, proceeded
to scold Stanislaus as being the cause of all the trouble. Such
meanness and injustice must have made the boy's blood boil. But he
mastered himself and said nothing.