Children of the Ghetto

by Израэль Зангвилл

  "No, it, isn't that. She speaks that beastly Yiddish-I made sure she'd have learned English by this time. I hope you don't speak it, Esther."

  "I must, Benjy. You see father and grandmother never speak anything else at home, and only know a few words of English. But I don't let the children speak it except to them. You should hear little Sarah speak English. It's beautiful. Only when she cries she says 'Woe is me' in Yiddish. I have had to slap her for it-but that makes her cry 'Woe is me' all the more. Oh, how nice you look, Benjy, with your white collar, just like the pictures of little Lord Launceston in the Fourth Standard Reader. I wish I could show you to the girls! Oh, my, what'll Solomon say when he sees you! He's always wearing his corduroys away at the knees."

  "But where is everybody? And why is there no fire?" said Benjamin impatiently. "It's beastly cold."

  "Father hopes to get a bread, coal and meat ticket to-morrow, dear."

  "Well, this is a pretty welcome for a fellow!" grumbled Benjamin.

  "I'm so sorry, Benjy! If I'd only known you were coming I might have borrowed some coals from Mrs. Belcovitch. But just stamp your feet a little if they freeze. No, do it outside the door; grandmother's asleep. Why didn't you write to me you were coming?"

  "I didn't know. Old Four-Eyes-that's one of our teachers-was going up to London this afternoon, and he wanted a boy to carry some parcels, and as I'm the best boy in my class he let me come. He let me run up and see you all, and I'm to meet him at London Bridge Station at seven o'clock. You're not much altered, Esther."

  "Ain't I?" she said, with a little pathetic smile. "Ain't I bigger?"

  "Not four years bigger. For a moment I could fancy I'd never been away. How the years slip by! I shall be Barmitzvah soon."

  "Yes, and now I've got you again I've so much to say I don't know where to begin. That time father went to see you I couldn't get much out of him about you, and your own letters have been so few."

  "A letter costs a penny, Esther. Where am I to get pennies from?"

  "I know, dear. I know you would have liked to write. But now you shall tell me everything. Have you missed us very much?"

  "No, I don't think so," said Benjamin.

  "Oh, not at all?" asked Esther in disappointed tones.

  "Yes, I missed you, Esther, at first," he said, soothingly. "But there's such a lot to do and to think about. It's a new life."

  "And have you been happy, Benjy?"

  "Oh yes. Quite. Just think! Regular meals, with oranges and sweets and entertainments every now and then, a bed all to yourself, good fires, a mansion with a noble staircase and hall, a field to play in, with balls and toys-"

  "A field!" echoed Esther. "Why it must be like going to Greenwich every day."

  "Oh, better than Greenwich where they take you girls for a measly day's holiday once a year."

  "Better than the Crystal Palace, where they take the boys?"

  "Why, the Crystal Palace is quite near. We can see the fire-works every Thursday night in the season."

  Esther's eyes opened wider. "And have you been inside?"

  "Lots of times."

  "Do you remember the time you didn't go?" Esther said softly.

  "A fellow doesn't forget that sort of thing," he grumbled. "I so wanted to go-I had heard such a lot about it from the boys who had been. When the day of the excursion came my Shabbos coat was in pawn, wasn't it?"

  "Yes," said Esther, her eyes growing humid. "I was so sorry for you, dear. You didn't want to go in your corduroy coat and let the boys know you didn't have a best coat. It was quite right, Benjy."

  "I remember mother gave me a treat instead," said Benjamin with a comic grimace. "She took me round to Zachariah Square and let me play there while she was scrubbing Malka's floor. I think Milly gave me a penny, and I remember Leah let me take a couple of licks from a glass of ice cream she was eating on the Ruins. It was a hot day-I shall never forget that ice cream. But fancy parents pawning a chap's only decent coat." He smoothed his well-brushed jacket complacently.

  "Yes, but don't you remember mother took it out the very next morning before school with the money she earnt at Malka's."

  "But what was the use of that? I put it on of course when I went to school and told the teacher I was ill the day before, just to show the boys I was telling the truth. But it was too late to take me to the Palace."

  "Ah, but it came in handy-don't you remember, Benjy, how one of the Great Ladies died suddenly the next week!"

  "Oh yes! Yoicks! Tallyho!" cried Benjamin, with sudden excitement. "We went down on hired omnibuses to the cemetery ever so far into the country, six of the best boys in each class, and I was on the box seat next to the driver, and I thought of the old mail-coach days and looked out for highwaymen. We stood along the path in the cemetery and the sun was shining and the grass was so green and there were such lovely flowers on the coffin when it came past with the gentlemen crying behind it and then we had lemonade and cakes on the way back. Oh, it was just beautiful! I went to two other funerals after that, but that was the one I enjoyed most. Yes, that coat did come in useful after all for a day in the country."

  Benjamin evidently did not think of his own mother's interment as a funeral. Esther did and she changed the subject quickly.

  "Well, tell me more about your place."

  "Well, it's like going to funerals every day. It's all country all round about, with trees and flowers and birds. Why, I've helped to make hay in the autumn."

  Esther drew a sigh of ecstasy. "It's like a book," she said.

  "Books!" he said. "We've got hundreds and hundreds, a whole library-Dickens, Mayne Reid, George Eliot, Captain Marryat, Thackeray-I've read them all."

  "Oh, Benjy!" said Esther, clasping her hands in admiration, both of the library and her brother. "I wish I were you."

  "Well, you could be me easily enough."

  "How?" said Esther, eagerly.

  "Why, we have a girls' department, too. You're an orphan as much as me. You get father to enter you as a candidate."

  "Oh, how could I, Benjy?" said Esther, her face falling. "What would become of Solomon and Ikey and little Sarah?"

  "They've got a father, haven't they? and a grandmother?"

  "Father can't do washing and cooking, you silly boy! And grandmother's too old."

  "Well, I call it a beastly shame. Why can't father earn a living and give out the washing? He never has a penny to bless himself with."

  "It isn't his fault, Benjy. He tries hard. I'm sure he often grieves that he's so poor that he can't afford the railway fare to visit you on visiting days. That time he did go he only got the money by selling a work-box I had for a prize. But he often speaks about you."

  "Well, I don't grumble at his not coming," said Benjamin. "I forgive him that because you know he's not very presentable, is he, Esther?"

  Esther was silent. "Oh, well, everybody knows he's poor. They don't expect father to be a gentleman."

  "Yes, but he might look decent. Does he still wear those two beastly little curls at the side of his head? Oh, I did hate it when I was at school here, and he used to come to see the master about something. Some of the boys had such respectable fathers, it was quite a pleasure to see them come in and overawe the teacher. Mother used to be as bad, coming in with a shawl over her head."

  "Yes, Benjy, but she used to bring us in bread and butter when there had been none in the house at breakfast-time. Don't you remember, Benjy?"

  "Oh, yes, I remember. We've been through some beastly bad times, haven't we, Esther? All I say is you wouldn't like father coming in before all the girls in your class, would you, now?"

  Esther blushed. "There is no occasion for him to come," she said evasively.

  "Well, I know what I shall do!" said Benjamin decisively; "I'm going to be a very rich man-"

  "Are you, Benjy?" inquired Esther.

  "Yes, of course. I'm going to write books-like Dickens and those fellows. Dickens made a pile of money, just by writing down plain eve
ry-day things going on around."

  "But you can't write!"

  Benjamin laughed a superior laugh, "Oh, can't I? What about Our Own, eh?"

  "What's that?"

  "That's our journal. I edit it. Didn't I tell you about it? Yes, I'm running a story through it, called 'The Soldier's Bride,' all about life in Afghanistan."

  "Oh, where could I get a number?"

  "You can't get a number. It ain't printed, stupid. It's all copied by hand, and we've only got a few copies. If you came down, you could see it."

  "Yes, but I can't come down," said Esther, with tears in her eyes.

  "Well, never mind. You'll see it some day. Well, what was I telling you? Oh, yes! About my prospects. You see, I'm going in for a scholarship in a few months, and everybody says I shall get it. Then, perhaps I might go to a higher school, perhaps to Oxford or Cambridge!"

  "And row in the boat-race!" said Esther, flushing with excitement.

  "No, bother the boat-race. I'm going in for Latin and Greek. I've begun to learn French already. So I shall know three foreign languages."

  "Four!" said Esther, "you forget Hebrew!"

  "Oh, of course, Hebrew. I don't reckon Hebrew. Everybody knows Hebrew. Hebrew's no good to any one. What I want is something that'll get me on in the world and enable me to write my books."

  "But Dickens-did he know Latin or Greek?" asked Esther.

  "No, he didn't," said Benjamin proudly. "That's just where I shall have the pull of him. Well, when I've got rich I shall buy father a new suit of clothes and a high hat-it is so beastly cold here, Esther, just feel my hands, like ice!-and I shall make him live with grandmother in a decent room, and give him an allowance so that he can study beastly big books all day long-does he still take a week to read a page? And Sarah and Isaac and Rachel shall go to a proper boarding school, and Solomon-how old will he be then?"

  Esther looked puzzled. "Oh, but suppose it takes you ten years getting famous! Solomon will be nearly twenty."

  "It can't take me ten years. But never mind! We shall see what is to be done with Solomon when the time comes. As for you-"

  "Well, Benjy," she said, for his imagination was breaking down.

  "I'll give you a dowry and you'll get married. See!" he concluded triumphantly.

  "Oh, but suppose I shan't want to get married?"

  "Nonsense-every girl wants to get married. I overheard Old Four-Eyes say all the teachers in the girls' department were dying to marry him. I've got several sweethearts already, and I dare say you have." He looked at her quizzingly.

  "No, dear," she said earnestly. "There's only Levi Jacobs, Reb Shemuel's son, who's been coming round sometimes to play with Solomon, and brings me almond-rock. But I don't care for him-at least not in that way. Besides, he's quite above us."

  "Oh, is he? Wait till I write my novels!"

  "I wish you'd write them now. Because then I should have something to read-Oh!"

  "What's the matter?"

  "I've lost my book. What have I done with my little brown book?"

  "Didn't you drop it on that beastly dog?"

  "Oh, did I? People'll tread on it on the stairs. Oh dear! I'll run down and get it. But don't call Bobby beastly, please."

  "Why not? Dogs are beasts, aren't they?"

  Esther puzzled over the retort as she flew downstairs, but could find no reply. She found the book, however, and that consoled her.

  "What have you got hold of?" replied Benjamin, when she returned.

  "Oh, nothing! It wouldn't interest you."

  "All books interest me," announced Benjamin with dignity.

  Esther reluctantly gave him the book. He turned over the pages carelessly, then his face grew serious and astonished.

  "Esther!" he said, "how did you come by this?"

  "One of the girls gave it me in exchange for a stick of slate pencil. She said she got it from the missionaries-she went to their night-school for a lark and they gave her it and a pair of boots as well."

  "And you have been reading it?"

  "Yes, Benjy," said Esther meekly.

  "You naughty girl! Don't you know the New Testament is a wicked book? Look here! There's the word 'Christ' on nearly every page, and the word 'Jesus' on every other. And you haven't even scratched them out! Oh, if any one was to catch you reading this book!"

  "I don't read it in school hours," said the little girl deprecatingly.

  "But you have no business to read it at all!"

  "Why not?" she said doggedly. "I like it. It seems just as interesting as the Old Testament, and there are more miracles to the page.''

  "You wicked girl!" said her brother, overwhelmed by her audacity. "Surely you know that all these miracles were false?"

  "Why were they false?" persisted Esther.

  "Because miracles left off after the Old Testament! There are no miracles now-a-days, are there?"

  "No," admitted Esther.

  "Well, then," he said triumphantly, "if miracles had gone overlapping into New Testament times we might just as well expect to have them now."

  "But why shouldn't we have them now?"

  "Esther, I'm surprised at you. I should like to set Old Four-Eyes on to you. He'd soon tell you why. Religion all happened in the past. God couldn't be always talking to His creatures."

  "I wish I'd lived in the past, when Religion was happening," said Esther ruefully. "But why do Christians all reverence this book? I'm sure there are many more millions of them than of Jews!"

  "Of course there are, Esther. Good things are scarce. We are so few because we are God's chosen people."

  "But why do I feel good when I read what Jesus said?"

  "Because you are so bad," he answered, in a shocked tone. "Here, give me the book, I'll burn it."

  "No, no!" said Esther. "Besides there's no fire."

  "No, hang it," he said, rubbing his hands. "Well, it'll never do if you have to fall back on this sort of thing. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll send you Our Own."

  "Oh, will you, Benjy? That is good of you," she said joyfully, and was kissing him when Solomon and Isaac came romping in and woke up the grandmother.

  "How are you, Solomon?" said Benjamin. "How are you, my little man," he added, patting Isaac on his curly head. Solomon was overawed for a moment. Then he said, "Hullo, Benjy, have you got any spare buttons?"

  But Isaac was utterly ignorant who the stranger could be and hung back with his finger in his mouth.

  "That's your brother Benjamin, Ikey," said Solomon.

  "Don't want no more brovers," said Ikey.

  "Oh, but I was here before you," said Benjamin laughing.

  "Does oor birfday come before mine, then?"

  "Yes, if I remember."

  Isaac looked tauntingly at the door. "See!" he cried to the absent Sarah. Then turning graciously to Benjamin he said, "I thant kiss oo, but I'll lat oo teep in my new bed."

  "But you must kiss him," said Esther, and saw that he did it before she left the room to fetch little Sarah from Mrs. Simons.

  When she came back Solomon was letting Benjamin inspect his Plevna peep-show without charge and Moses Ansell was back, too. His eyes were red with weeping, but that was on account of the Maggid. His nose was blue with the chill of the cemetery.

  "He was a great man." he was saying to the grandmother. "He could lecture for four hours together on any text and he would always manage to get back to the text before the end. Such exegetics, such homiletics! He was greater than the Emperor of Russia. Woe! Woe!"

  "Woe! Woe!" echoed the grandmother. "If women were allowed to go to funerals, I would gladly have, followed him. Why did he come to England? In Poland he would still have been alive. And why did I come to England? Woe! Woe'"

  Her head dropped back on the pillow and her sighs passed gently into snores. Moses turned again to his eldest born, feeling that he was secondary in importance only to the Maggid, and proud at heart of his genteel English appearance.

  "Well, you'll soon be Bar-mitz
vah, Benjamin." he said, with clumsy geniality blent with respect, as he patted his boy's cheeks with his discolored fingers.

  Benjamin caught the last two words and nodded his head.

  "And then you'll be coming back to us. I suppose they will apprentice you to something."

  "What does he say, Esther?" asked Benjamin, impatiently.

  Esther interpreted.

  "Apprentice me to something!" he repeated, disgusted. "Father's ideas are so beastly humble. He would like everybody to dance on him. Why he'd be content to see me a cigar-maker or a presser. Tell him I'm not coming home, that I'm going to win a scholarship and to go to the University."

  Moses's eyes dilated with pride. "Ah, you will become a Rav," he said, and lifted up his boy's chin and looked lovingly into the handsome face.

  "What's that about a Rav, Esther?" said Benjamin. "Does he want me to become a Rabbi-Ugh! Tell him I'm going to write books."

  "My blessed boy! A good commentary on the Song of Songs is much needed. Perhaps you will begin by writing that."

  "Oh, it's no use talking to him, Esther. Let him be. Why can't he speak English?"

  "He can-but you'd understand even less," said Esther with a sad smile.

  "Well, all I say is it's a beastly disgrace. Look at the years he's been in England-just as long as we have." Then the humor of the remark dawned upon him and he laughed. "I suppose he's out of work, as usual," he added.

  Moses's ears pricked up at the syllables "out-of-work," which to him was a single word of baneful meaning.

  "Yes," he said in Yiddish. "But if I only had a few pounds to start with I could work up a splendid business."

  "Wait! He shall have a business," said Benjamin when Esther interpreted.

  "Don't listen to him," said Esther. "The Board of Guardians has started him again and again. But he likes to think he is a man of business."

  Meantime Isaac had been busy explaining Benjamin to Sarah, and pointing out the remarkable confirmation of his own views as to birthdays. This will account for Esther's next remark being, "Now, dears, no fighting to-day. We must celebrate Benjy's return. We ought to kill a fatted calf-like the man in the Bible."

  "What are you talking about, Esther?" said Benjamin suspiciously.