s, and stood at her husband's shoulder, watching
the boys risk their money, and how Benny took on all the bets. Benny was
excited, burning, aflame, ablaze. He twirled the top. It spun round and
round, wobbled and fell down.

"G all over again. It's a regular pantomime."

Benny showed us his smartness and his quick-wittedness so long, until
our pockets were empty. He thrust his hands in his pockets, as if
challenging us--"Well, who wants more?"

We all went home. We carried away with us the heartache and the shame of
our losses. When we got home, we had to tell lies to account for the
loss of the money we had been given in honour of "_Chanukah_." One boy
confessed he had spent his on locust-beans. Another said the money had
been stolen out of his pocket the previous night. A third came home
crying. He said he had bought himself a pocket-knife. Well, why was he
crying? He had lost the knife on his way home.

I told my mother a fine story--a regular "Arabian Nights" tale, and got
out of her a second "_Chanukah_" present of ten "_groschens_." I ran off
with them to Benny, played for five minutes, lost to him, and flew back
home, and told my mother another tale. In a word, brains were at work
and heads were busy inventing lies. Lies flew about like chaff in the
wind. And all our "_Chanukah_" money went into Benny's pockets, and was
lost to us for ever.

One of the boys became so absorbed in the play that he was not satisfied
to lose only his "_Chanukah_" money, but went on gambling through the
whole eight days of the festival.

And that boy was no other than myself, "the widow's son."

* * *

You must not ask where the widow's boy got the money to play with. The
great gamblers of the world who have lost and won fortunes, estates and
inheritances--they will know and understand. Woe is me! May the hour
never be known on which the evil spirit of gambling takes hold of one!
There is nothing too hard for him. He breaks into houses, gets through
iron walls, and does the most terrible thing imaginable. It's a name to
conjure with--the spirit of gambling.

First of all, I began to make money by selling everything I possessed,
one thing after the other, my pocket-knife, my purse, and all my
buttons. I had a box that opened and closed, and some wheels of an old
clock--good brass wheels that shone like the sun when they were
polished. I sold them all at any price, flew off, and lost all my money
to Benny. I always left him w