rand for you and
me and all of us."

"Hear her, mamma, how she talks! Ain't she a girl for you?"

"You--you children mustn't mind me--I'm an old woman. You go in the
front room, and I'll be all right in a minute--so happy I am for my
boy. You bad boy, you--not to tell your mamma the other night!"

"Mamma, so help me, I didn't know it myself till I seen her come back
to-day so pretty, and all--I just felt it inside of me all of a sudden."

"Aw, Abe--ain't he the silly talker, Mrs. Ginsburg?--mamma! You mustn't
cry, mamma; we'll make it grand for you."

"Ain't I the silly one myself to cry when I'm so happy for you? I'll be
all right in a minute--so happy I am!"

"Ruby, you tell mamma how grand it'll be."

Miss Cohn placed her arms about Mrs. Ginsburg's neck, stood on tiptoe,
and kissed her on the tear-wet lips.

"You always got a home with us, mamma. Me and Abie wouldn't be engaged
this minute if it wasn't that you would always have a home with us."

With one swoop Mr. Ginsburg gathered the two women in a mutual embrace
that strained his arms from their sockets; his voice was taut, like one
who talks through a throat that aches.

"My little mamma and my little Ruby--ain't it?"

Mrs. Ginsburg dried her eyes on a corner of her apron and smiled at them
with fresh tears forming instantly.

"He's been a good boy, Ruby. I only want that he should make just so
good a husband. I always said the girl that gets him does well enough
for herself. I don't want to brag on my own child, but--if--"

"Aw, mamma!"

"But, if I do say it myself, he's been a good boy to his mother."

"Now, mamma, don't begin--"

"I always said to him, Ruby, looks in a girl don't count the most--such
girls as you see nowadays, with their big ideas, ain't worth house-room.
I always say to him, Ruby, a girl that ain't ashamed to work and knows
the value of a dollar, and can help a young man save and get a start
without such big ideas like apartments and dummy waiters--"

"Honest, wouldn't you think this was a funeral! Mamma, to-night we have
a party--not? I go down and get up that bottle of wine!"

"_Himmel!_ My _Pfannkuechen_! Yes, Abie, run down in the cellar; on the
top shelf it is, under the grape-jelly row--left yet from poor papa's
last birthday. _Ach_, Ruby, you should have known poor papa--that such a
man could have been taken before his time! Sit down, Ruby, while I dish
up."

The tears dried on Mrs. Ginsburg's cheeks, leaving th