ating Koest? There are books in
plenty, thank Heaven, of your father's.' No, no, he wanted to go and
study elsewhere, asked nobody's advice, and made off, and for two months
I never had a line. I nearly went out of my mind. Then, suddenly, there
came a letter, begging my pardon for not having said good-by, and would
I forgive him, and send him some money, because he had nothing to eat.
It tore my heart to think my Moishehle, who used to make me happy
whenever he enjoyed a meal, should hunger. I sent him some money, I went
on sending him money for three years, after that he stopped asking for
it. I begged him to come home, he made no reply. 'I don't wish to
quarrel with Avremel, my sister, and her husband,' he wrote later, 'we
cannot live together in peace.' Why? I don't know! Then, for a time, he
left off writing altogether, and the messages we got from him sounded
very sad. Now he was in Kieff, now in Odessa, now in Charkoff, and they
told us he was living like any Gentile, had not the look of a Jew at
all. Some said he was living with a Gentile woman, a countess, and would
never marry in his life."

Five years ago he had suddenly appeared at home, "to see his mother," as
he said. Gittel did not recognize him, he was so changed. The rest found
him quite the stranger: he had a "goyish" shaven face, with a twisted
moustache, and was got up like a rich Gentile, with a purse full of
bank-notes. His family were ashamed to walk abroad with him, Gittel
never ceased weeping and imploring him to give up the countess, remain a
Jew, stay with his mother, and she, with God's help, would make an
excellent match for him, if he would only alter his appearance and ways
just a little. Moishehle solemnly assured his mother that he was a Jew,
that there was no countess, but that he wouldn't remain at home for a
million rubles, first, because he had business elsewhere, and secondly,
he had no fancy for his native town, there was nothing there for him to
do, and to dispute with his brother and sister about religious piety was
not worth his while.

So Moishehle departed, and Gittel wept, wondering why he was different
from the other children, seeing they all had the same mother, and she
had lived and suffered for all alike. Why would he not stay with her at
home? What would he have wanted for there? God be praised, not to sin
with her tongue, thanks to God first, and then to _him_ (a lightsome
paradise be his!), they were provided for, wit