Marah. The room in
which I was born constituted our whole hut, which was black as a
charred log within and without, and never saw the sunlight save
through rents in the paper which covered the crossed stripes of pine
that formed the windows. In winter, when the stove heated the hovel to
suffocation, and the wind and rain drove back the smoke through the
hole in the roof that served for chimney, the air was almost as
noxious to its human inhabitants as the smoke to the vermin in the
half-washed garments that hung across poles. We sat at such times on
the floor, not daring to sit higher, for fear of suffocation in the
denser atmosphere hovering over us; and I can still feel the drip,
drip, on my head, of the fat from the sausages that hung a-drying. In
a corner of this living and sleeping room stood the bucket of clean
water, and alongside it the slop-pail and the pail into which my
father milked the cow. Poor old cow! She was quite like one of the
family, and often lingered on in the room after being milked.

My mother kneaded bread with the best, and was as pious as she was
deft, never omitting to throw the Sabbath dough in the fire. Not that
her prowess as a cook had much opportunity, for our principal fare was
corn-bread, mixed with bran and sour cabbage and red beets, which lay
stored on the floor in tubs. Here we all lived together--my
grandfather, my parents, my brother and sister; not so unhappy,
especially on Sabbaths and festivals, when we ate fish cooked with
butter in the evening, and meat at dinnertime, washed down with mead
or spirits. We children--and indeed our elders--were not seldom kicked
and cudgelled by the Russian soldiers, when they were in liquor, but
we could be merry enough romping about ragged and unwashed, and our
real life was lived in the Holy Land, with patriarchs, kings, and
prophets, and we knew that we should return thither some day, and
inherit Paradise.

Once, I remember, the Princess, the daughter of our Prince, being
fatigued while out hunting, came to rest herself in our mean hut, with
her ladies and her lackeys, all so beautiful and splendid, and
glittering with gold and silver lace. I stared at the Princess with
her lovely face and rich dress, as if my eyes would burst from their
sockets. "O how beautiful!" I ejaculated at last, with a sob.

"Little fool!" whispered my father soothingly. "In the world to come
the Princess will kindle the stove for us."

I was struck dumb with