ess ware that my father
brought back with him from his travels in distant parts. His travels,
indeed, had been the making of my father. He had gone away from
Polotzk, in the first place, as a man unfit for the life he led, out
of harmony with his surroundings, at odds with his neighbors. Never
heartily devoted to the religious ideals of the Hebrew scholar, he was
more and more a dissenter as he matured, but he hardly knew what he
wanted to embrace in place of the ideals he rejected. The rigid scheme
of orthodox Jewish life in the Pale offered no opening to any other
mode of life. But in the large cities in the east and south he
discovered a new world, and found himself at home in it. The Jews
among whom he lived in those parts were faithful to the essence of the
religion, but they allowed themselves more latitude in practice and
observance than the people in Polotzk. Instead of bribing government
officials to relax the law of compulsory education for boys, these
people pushed in numbers at every open door of culture and
enlightenment. Even the girls were given books in Odessa and Kherson,
as the rock to build their lives on, and not as an ornament for
idleness. My father's mind was ready for the reception of such ideas,
and he was inspired by the new view of the world which they afforded
him.

When he returned to Polotzk he knew what had been wrong with his life
before, and he proceeded to remedy it. He resolved to live, as far as
the conditions of existence in Polotzk permitted, the life of a modern
man. And he saw no better place to begin than with the education of
the children. Outwardly he must conform to the ways of his neighbors,
just as he must pay tribute to the policeman on the beat; for standing
room is necessary to all operations, and social ostracism could ruin
him as easily as police persecution. His children, if he started them
right, would not have to bow to the yoke as low as he; his children's
children might even be free men. And education was the one means to
redemption.

Fetchke and I were started with a rebbe, in the orthodox way, but we
were taught to translate as well as read Hebrew, and we had a secular
teacher besides. My sister and I were very diligent pupils, and my
father took great satisfaction in our progress and built great plans
for our higher education.

My brother, who was five years old when he entered heder, hated to be
shut up all day over a printed page that meant nothing to him.