er that had come by post, she put on her
spectacles, sat down by the window, and began to read.

She read, and her face began to shine, and the wrinkled skin took on a
little color. It was plain that what she read delighted her beyond
measure, she devoured the words, caught her breath, and wept aloud in
the fulness of her joy.

"At last, at last! Blessed be His dear Name, whom I am not worthy to
mention! I do not know, Gottinyu, how to thank Thee for the mercy Thou
hast shown me. Beile! Where is Beile? Where is Yossel? Children! Come,
make haste and wish me joy, a great joy has befallen us! Send for
Avremele, tell him to come with Zlatke and all the children."

Thus Gittel, while she read the letter, never ceased calling every one
into the room, never ceased reading and calling, calling and reading,
and devouring the words as she read.

Every soul who happened to be at home came running.

"Good luck to you! Good luck to us all! Moishehle has become engaged in
Warsaw, and invites us all to the wedding," Gittel explained. "There,
read the letter, Lord of the World, may it be in a propitious hour, may
we all have comfort in one another, may we hear nothing but good news of
one another and of All-Israel! Read it, read it, children! He writes
that he has a very beautiful bride, well-favored, with a large dowry.
Lord of the World, I am not worthy of the mercy Thou hast shown me!"
repeated Gittel over and over, as she paced the room with uplifted
hands, while her daughter Beile took up the letter in her turn. The
children and everyone in the house, including the maid from the kitchen,
with rolled-up sleeves and wet hands, encircled Beile as she read aloud.

"Read louder, Beiletshke, so that I can hear, so that we can all hear,"
begged Gittel, and there were tears of happiness in her eyes.

The children jumped for joy to see Grandmother so happy. The word
"wedding," which Beile read out of the letter, contained a promise of
all delightful things: musicians, pancakes, new frocks and suits, and
they could not keep themselves from dancing. The maid, too, was heartily
pleased, she kept on singing out, "Oi, what a bride, beautiful as gold!"
and did not know what to be doing next--should she go and finish cooking
the dinner, or should she pull down her sleeves and make holiday?

The hiss of a pot boiling over in the kitchen interrupted the
letter-reading, and she was requested to go and attend to it forthwith.

"The bride se