d. I froze; I coughed; my mistress said I
was not of much use to her. So my mother kept me at home, and my
career as a milliner was blighted.

This was during our last year in Russia, when I was between twelve and
thirteen years of age. I was old enough to be ashamed of my failures,
but I did not have much time to think about them, because my Uncle
Solomon took me with him to Vitebsk.

It was not my first visit to that city. A few years before I had spent
some days there, in the care of my father's cousin Rachel, who
journeyed periodically to the capital of the province to replenish her
stock of spools and combs and like small wares, by the sale of which
she was slowly earning her dowry.

On that first occasion, Cousin Rachel, who had developed in business
that dual conscience, one for her Jewish neighbors and one for the
Gentiles, decided to carry me without a ticket. I was so small, though
of an age to pay half-fare, that it was not difficult. I remember her
simple stratagem from beginning to end. When we approached the ticket
office she whispered to me to stoop a little, and I stooped. The
ticket agent passed me. In the car she bade me curl up in the seat,
and I curled up. She threw a shawl over me and bade me pretend to
sleep, and I pretended to sleep. I heard the conductor collect the
tickets. I knew when he was looking at me. I heard him ask my age and
I heard Cousin Rachel lie about it. I was allowed to sit up when the
conductor was gone, and I sat up and looked out of the window and saw
everything, and was perfectly, perfectly happy. I was fond of my
cousin, and I smiled at her in perfect understanding and admiration of
her cleverness in beating the railroad company.

I knew then, as I know now, beyond a doubt, that my Uncle David's
daughter was an honorable woman. With the righteous she dealt
squarely; with the unjust, as best she could. She was in duty bound to
make all the money she could, for money was her only protection in the
midst of the enemy. Every kopeck she earned or saved was a scale in
her coat of armor. We learned this code early in life, in Polotzk; so
I was pleased with the success of our ruse on this occasion, though I
should have been horrified if I had seen Cousin Rachel cheat a Jew.

We made our headquarters in that part of Vitebsk where my father's
numerous cousins and aunts lived, in more or less poverty, or at most
in the humblest comfort; but I was taken to my Uncle Solomon's to
sp