enjoy the excitement and variety of
their restless life. I should be the last to blame my great-aunt, for
the irregularity of her conduct afforded my grandfather the opening
for his career, the fruits of which made my childhood so pleasant. For
several years my grandfather travelled in Hode's train, in the
capacity of shohat providing kosher meat for the little troup in the
unholy wilds of "far Russia"; and the grateful couple rewarded him so
generously that he soon had a fortune of eighty rubles laid by.

My grandfather thought the time had now come to settle down, but he
did not know how to invest his wealth. To resolve his perplexity, he
made a pilgrimage to the Rebbe of Kopistch, who advised him to open a
store in Polotzk, and gave him a blessed groschen to keep in the money
drawer for good luck.

The blessing of the "good Jew" proved fruitful. My grandfather's
business prospered, and my grandmother bore him children, several sons
and one daughter. The sons were sent to heder, like all respectable
boys; and they were taught, in addition, writing and arithmetic,
enough for conducting a business. With this my grandfather was
content; more than this he considered incompatible with piety. He was
one of those who strenuously opposed the influence of the public
school, and bribed the government officials to keep their children's
names off the register of schoolboys, as we have already seen. When he
sent his sons to a private tutor, where they could study Russian with
their hats on, he felt, no doubt, that he was giving them all the
education necessary to a successful business career, without violating
piety too grossly.

If reading and writing were enough for the sons, even less would
suffice the daughter. A female teacher was engaged for my mother, at
three kopecks a week, to teach her the Hebrew prayers; and my
grandmother, herself a better scholar than the teacher, taught her
writing in addition. My mother was quick to learn, and expressed an
ambition to study Russian. She teased and coaxed, and her mother
pleaded for her, till my grandfather was persuaded to send her to a
tutor. But the fates were opposed to my mother's education. On the
first day at school, a sudden inflammation of the eyes blinded my
mother temporarily, and although the distemper vanished as suddenly as
it had appeared, it was taken as an omen, and my mother was not
allowed to return to her lessons.

Still she did not give up. She saved up eve