, on one sleeve only, the other dangling empty
from her shoulder.

Hayyim begat Joseph, and Joseph begat Pinchus, my father. It behooves
me to consider the stuff I sprang from.

Joseph inherited the trade, good name, and meagre portion of his
father, and maintained the family tradition of honesty and poverty
unbroken to the day of his death. For that matter, Yuchovitch never
heard of any connection of the family, not even a doubtful cousin, who
was not steeped to the earlocks in poverty. But that was no
distinction in Yuchovitch; the whole village was poor almost to
beggary.

Joseph was an indifferent workman, an indifferent scholar, and an
indifferent hasid. At one thing only he was strikingly good, and that
was at grumbling. Although not unkind, he had a temper that boiled
over at small provocation, and even in his most placid mood he took
very little satisfaction in the world. He reversed the proverb,
looking for the sable lining of every silver cloud. In the conditions
of his life he found plenty of food for his pessimism, and merry
hearts were very rare among his neighbors. Still a certain amount of
gloom appears to have been inherent in the man. And as he distrusted
the whole world, so Joseph distrusted himself, which made him shy and
awkward in company. My mother tells how, at the wedding of his only
son, my father, Joseph sat the whole night through in a corner, never
as much as cracking a smile, while the wedding guests danced, laughed,
and rejoiced.

It may have been through distrust of the marital state that Joseph
remained single till the advanced age of twenty-five. Then he took
unto himself an orphan girl as poor as he, namely, Rachel, the
daughter of Israel Kimanyer of pious memory.

My grandmother was such a gentle, cheerful soul, when I knew her, that
I imagine she must have been a merry bride. I should think my
grandfather would have taken great satisfaction in her society, as her
attempts to show him the world through rose-hued spectacles would have
given him frequent opportunity to parade his grievances and recite his
wrongs. But from all reports it appears that he was never satisfied,
and if he did not make his wife unhappy it was because he was away
from home so much. He was absent the greater part of the time; for a
glazier, even if he were a better workman than my grandfather, could
not make a living in Yuchovitch. He became a country peddler, trading
between Polotzk and Yuchovitch, and ta