lace where we might be
obliged to stay for I knew not how long. The room where we were sitting
was large, with windows so high up that we couldn't see anything through
them. In the middle stood several long wooden tables, and around these
were settees of the same kind. On the right, opposite the doctor's
office, was a little room where various things could be bought of a
young man--if you hadn't paid all your money for other things.

When the doctor was through with us he told us to go to Number Five. Now
wasn't that like in a prison? We walked up and down a long yard looking,
among a row of low, numbered doors, for ours, when we heard an
exclamation of, "Oh, Esther! how do you happen to be here?" and, on
seeing the speaker, found it to be an old friend of ours from Plotzk.
She had gone long before us, but her ship hadn't arrived yet. She was
surprised to see us because we had had no intention of going when she
went.

What a comfort it was to find a friend among all the strangers! She
showed us at once to our new quarters, and while she talked to mamma I
had time to see what they were like.

It looked something like a hospital, only less clean and comfortable;
more like the soldiers' barracks I had seen. I saw a very large room,
around whose walls were ranged rows of high iron double bedsteads, with
coarse sacks stuffed with something like matting, and not over-clean
blankets for the only bedding, except where people used their own. There
were three windows almost touching the roof, with nails covering all the
framework. From the ceiling hung two round gas lamps, and almost under
them stood a little wooden table and a settee. The floor was of stone.

Here was a pleasant prospect. We had no idea how long this unattractive
place might be our home.

Our friend explained that Number Five was only for Jewish women and
girls, and the beds were sleeping rooms, dining rooms, parlors, and
everything else, kitchens excepted. It seemed so, for some were lounging
on the beds, some sitting up, some otherwise engaged, and all were
talking and laughing and making a great noise. Poor things! there was
nothing else to do in that prison.

Before mother had told our friend of our adventures, a girl, also a
passenger, who had been walking in the yard, ran in and announced, "It's
time to go to dinner! He has come already." "He" we soon learned, was
the overseer of the Jewish special kitchen, without whom the meals were
never taken.