hite
buttons and a cap with a badge in front, quite the district-governor!
And it did one's heart good to see him, poor child! There was new life
in him, he was so happy, and he shone, I tell you, like the July sun!
The company drank to him, and wished him joy: Might he study in health,
and finish the course in health, and go on in health, till he reached
the university! "Ett!" say I, "we can do with less. Let him only
complete the eight classes at the Gymnasiye," say I, "and, please God,
I'll make a bridegroom of him, with God's help." Cries my wife, smiling
and fixing me with her eye the while, "Tell him," says she, "that he's
wrong! He," says she, "keeps to the old-fashioned cut." "Tell her from
me," say I, "that I'm blest if the old-fashioned cut wasn't better than
the new." Says she, "Tell him that he (may he forgive me!) is----" The
company burst out laughing. "Oi, Reb Aaron," say they, "you have a wife
(no evil eye!) who is a Cossack and not a wife at all!" Meanwhile they
emptied their wine-glasses, and cleared their plates, and we were what
is called "lively." I and my wife were what is called "taken into the
boat," the little one in the middle, and we made merry till daylight.
That morning early we took him to the Gymnasiye. It was very early,
indeed, the door was shut, not a soul to be seen. Standing outside there
in the frost, we were glad enough when the door opened, and they let us
in. Directly after that the small fry began to arrive with their
satchels, and there was a noise and a commotion and a chatter and a
laughing and a scampering to and fro--a regular fair! Schoolboys jumped
over one another, gave each other punches, pokes, and pinches. As I
looked at these young hopefuls with the red cheeks, with the merry,
laughing eyes, I called to mind our former narrow, dark, and gloomy
Cheder of long ago years, and I saw that after all she was right; she
might be a woman, but she had a man's head on her shoulders! And as I
reflected thus, there came along an individual in gilt buttons, who
turned out to be a teacher, and asked what I wanted. I pointed to my
boy, and said I had come to bring him to Cheder, that is, to the
Gymnasiye. He asked to which class? I tell him, the third, and he has
only just been entered. He asks his name. Say I, "Katz, Moisheh Katz,
that is, Moshke Katz." Says he, "Moshke Katz?" He has no Moshke Katz in
the third class. "There is," he says, "a Katz, only not a Moshke Katz,
but a Morduc