The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Ghetto Violet, by Leopold Kompert

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Title: A Ghetto Violet
From "Christian and Leah"

Author: Leopold Kompert

Translator: A. S. Arnold

Release Date: September 18, 2007 [EBook #22663]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A GHETTO VIOLET ***

Produced by David Widger

A GHETTO VIOLET

By Leopold Kompert

From "Christian and Leah." Translated by A. S. Arnold.

1869

Through the open window came the clear trill of a canary singing
blithely in its cage. Within the tidy, homely little room a pale-faced
girl and a youth of slender frame listened intently while the bird sang
its song. The girl was the first to break the silence.

"Ephraim, my brother!" she said.

"What is it, dear Viola?"

"I wonder does the birdie know that it is the Sabbath to-day?"

"What a child you are!" answered Ephraim.

"Yes, that 's always the way; when you clever men can't explain a
thing, you simply dismiss the question by calling it childish," Viola
exclaimed, as though quite angry. "And, pray, why should n't the bird
know? The whole week it scarcely sang a note: to-day it warbles and
warbles so that it makes my head ache. And what's the reason? Every
Sabbath it's just the same, I notice it regularly. Shall I tell you what
my idea is?

"The whole week long the little bird looks into our room and sees
nothing but the humdrum of work-a-day life. To-day it sees the bright
rays of the Sabbath lamp and the white Sabbath cloth upon the table.
Don't you think I 'm right, Ephraim?"

"Wait, dear Viola," said Ephraim, and he went to the cage.

The bird's song suddenly ceased.

"Now you 've spoilt its Sabbath!" cried the girl, and she was so excited
that the book which had been lying upon her lap fell to the ground.

Ephraim turned towards her; he looked at her solemnly, and said quietly:

"Pick up your prayer-book first, and then I 'll answer. A holy book
should not be on the ground like that. Had our mother dropped her
prayer-book, she would have kissed it.... Kiss it, Viola, my child!"

Viola did so.

"And now I 'll tell you, dear Viola, what I think is the reason