h--Morduch Katz." Say I, "What Morduch? Moshke, not
Morduch!" "Morduch!" he repeats, and thrusts the paper into my face. I
to him, "Moshke." He to me, "Morduch!" In short, Moshke--Morduch,
Morduch--Moshke, we hammer away till there comes out a fine tale: that
which should have been mine is another's. You see what a kettle of fish?
A regular Gentile muddle! They have entered a Katz--yes! But, by
mistake, another, not ours. You see how it was: there were two Katz's in
our town! What do you say to such luck? I have made a bed, and another
will lie in it! No, but you ought to know who the other is, _that_ Katz,
I mean! A nothing of a nobody, an artisan, a bookbinder or a carpenter,
quite a harmless little man, but who ever heard of him? A pauper! And
_his_ son--yes! And mine--no! Isn't it enough to disgust one, I ask you!
And you should have seen that poor boy of mine, when he was told to take
the badge off his cap! No bride on her wedding-day need shed more tears
than were his! And no matter how I reasoned with him, whether I coaxed
or scolded. "You see," I said to her, "what you've done! Didn't I tell
you that your Gymnasiye was a slaughter-house for him? I only trust this
may have a good ending, that he won't fall ill."--"Let my enemies," said
she, "fall ill, if they like. My child," says she, "must enter the
Gymnasiye. If he hasn't got in this time, in a year, please God, he
_will_. If he hasn't got in," says she, "_here_, he will get in in
another town--he _must_ get in! Otherwise," says she, "I shall shut an
eye, and the earth shall cover me!" You hear what she said? And who, do
you suppose, had his way--she or I? When _she_ sets her heart on a
thing, can there be any question?

Well, I won't make a long story of it. I hunted up and down with him; we
went to the ends of the world, wherever there was a town and a
Gymnasiye, thither went we! We went up for examination, and were
examined, and we passed and passed high, and did _not_ get in--and why?
All because of the percentage! You may believe, I looked upon my own
self as crazy those days! "Wretch! what is this? What is this flying
that you fly from one town to another? What good is to come of it? And
suppose he does get in, what then?" No, say what you will, ambition is a
great thing. In the end it took hold of me, too, and the Almighty had
compassion, and sent me a Gymnasiye in Poland, a "commercial" one, where
they took in one Jew to every Christian. It came to fift