tle Sammy from the mother's hands.

"_Meshugneh!_ what are you running around like a crazy, frightening the
child? Let me see. Let me tend to him. He ain't killed yet." She
hastened to the sink to wash the child's face, and discovered a swelling
lump on his forehead. "Have you a quarter in your house?" she asked.

"Yes, I got one," replied Hanneh Breineh, climbing on a chair. "I got to
keep it on a high shelf where the children can't get it."

Mrs. Pelz seized the quarter Hanneh Breineh handed down to her.

"Now pull your left eyelid three times while I'm pressing the quarter,
and you will see the swelling go down."

Hanneh Breineh took the child again in her arms, shaking and cooing over
it and caressing it.

"Ah-ah-ah, Sammy! Ah-ah-ah-ah, little lamb! Ah-ah-ah, little bird!
Ah-ah-ah-ah, precious heart! Oh, you saved my life; I thought he was
killed," gasped Hanneh Breineh, turning to Mrs. Pelz. "_Oi-i!_" she
sighed, "a mother's heart! always in fear over her children. The minute
anything happens to them all life goes out of me. I lose my head and I
don't know where I am any more."

"No wonder the child fell," admonished Mrs. Pelz. "You should have a red
ribbon or red beads on his neck to keep away the evil eye. Wait. I got
something in my machine-drawer."

Mrs. Pelz returned, bringing the boiler and a red string, which she tied
about the child's neck while the mother proceeded to fill the boiler.

A little later Hanneh Breineh again came into Mrs. Pelz's kitchen,
holding Sammy in one arm and in the other an apron full of potatoes.
Putting the child down on the floor, she seated herself on the unmade
kitchen-bed and began to peel the potatoes in her apron.

"Woe to me!" sobbed Hanneh Breineh. "To my bitter luck there ain't no
end. With all my other troubles, the stove got broke'. I lighted the
fire to boil the clothes, and it's to get choked with smoke. I paid rent
only a week ago, and the agent don't want to fix it. A thunder should
strike him! He only comes for the rent, and if anything has to be fixed,
then he don't want to hear nothing."

"Why comes it to me so hard?" went on Hanneh Breineh, the tears
streaming down her cheeks. "I can't stand it no more. I came into you
for a minute to run away from my troubles. It's only when I sit myself
down to peel potatoes or nurse the baby that I take time to draw a
breath, and beg only for death."

Mrs. Pelz, accustomed to Hanneh Breineh's bitter outbursts, cont