: On the train, the narrator hears the general tell his son about the creator of the railway, cannot stand it and tells the boy the truth about the road built on the bones of ordinary Russian men.

Son Vanya asks his father the general who built the railway. The general ascribes its construction to Count Peter Andreevich Kleinmichel.

The narrator - a companion traveling with them in the same compartment - disagrees with the words of the general and begins his story about the true builders of the railway. The narrator tells the boy about the merciless king, who drove the people to build, about hunger.

He drove the masses of people here.
Many are in a terrible fight
Calling to life these barren barren,
They found the coffin here.

Listening to the story of a fellow traveler, Vanya falls asleep. In a dream, he sees ordinary men - the real builders of the railway. From them, the boy learns how hard the work has gone to the simple Russian people.

Don’t be shy for your dear fatherland ...
He endured enough Russian people,
He took this railroad too -
He will bear everything that the Lord sends!

A whistle blows, and the boy wakes up.The child talks about his dream to his father, but he only laughs. He calls ordinary people barbarians, unable to create anything, reproaches the narrator for telling the boy sad stories.

The narrator agrees to outline the “bright side” - the work is done, the men are going to the office, but they are not given money, on the contrary, they still have to. The arrived contractor accepts work and says that he gives them an arrears, and in addition rolls out a barrel of wine. Guys are happy about this.