nneh Breineh became aware that Benny was missing. "_Oi
weh!_" she burst out, wringing her hands in a new wave of woe, "where is
Benny? Didn't he come home yet from school?"

She ran out into the hall, opened the grime-coated window, and looked up
and down the street; but Benny was nowhere in sight.

"Abe, Jake, Fanny, quick, find Benny!" entreated Hanneh Breineh as she
rushed back into the kitchen. But the children, anxious to snatch a few
minutes' play before the school-call, dodged past her and hurried out.

With the baby on her arm, Hanneh Breineh hastened to the kindergarten.

"Why are you keeping Benny here so long?" she shouted at the teacher as
she flung open the door. "If you had my bitter heart, you would send him
home long ago and not wait till I got to come for him."

The teacher turned calmly and consulted her record-cards.

"Benny Safron? He wasn't present this morning."

"Not here?" shrieked Hanneh Breineh. "I pushed him out myself he should
go. The children didn't want to take him, and I had no time. Woe is me!
Where is my child?" She began pulling her hair and beating her breast as
she ran into the street.

Mrs. Pelz was busy at a push-cart, picking over some spotted apples,
when she heard the clamor of an approaching crowd. A block off she
recognized Hanneh Breineh, her hair disheveled, her clothes awry,
running toward her with her yelling baby in her arms, the crowd
following.

"Friend mine," cried Hanneh Breineh, falling on Mrs. Pelz's neck, "I
lost my Benny, the best child of all my children." Tears streamed down
her red, swollen eyes as she sobbed. "Benny! mine heart, mine life!
_Oi-i!_"

Mrs. Pelz took the frightened baby out of the mother's arms.

"Still yourself a little! See how you're frightening your child."

"Woe to me! Where is my Benny? Maybe he's killed already by a car. Maybe
he fainted away from hunger. He didn't eat nothing all day long.
_Gottuniu!_ pity yourself on me!"

She lifted her hands full of tragic entreaty.

"People, my child! Get me my child! I'll go crazy out of my head! Get me
my child, or I'll take poison before your eyes!"

"Still yourself a little!" pleaded Mrs. Pelz.

"Talk not to me!" cried Hanneh Breineh, wringing her hands. "You're
having all your children. I lost mine. Every good luck comes to other
people. But I didn't live yet to see a good day in my life. Mine only
joy, mine Benny, is lost away from me."

The crowd followed Hanneh Breineh as s