144 SHOLOM-ALECHEM
their out-of-the-way little town strikes are all the fash- ion!
And out of that they have to pay rent for a damp corner in a basement.
To buy clothes and shoes for the lot of them ! They have a dress each, but they are two to every pair of shoes.
And then food such as it is ! A bit of bread smeared with an onion, sometimes groats, occasionally there is a bit of taran that burns your heart out, so that after eating it for supper, you can drink a whole night.
When it comes to eating, the bread has to be por- tioned out like cake.
"Oi, dos Essen, dos Essen seiers!"
Thus Chaike, Chayyim Chaikin's wife, a poor, sick creature, who coughs all night long.
"No evil eye," says the father, and he looks at his children devouring whole slices of bread, and would dearly like to take a mouthful himself, only, if he does so, the two little ones, Fradke and Beilke, will go sup- perless.
And he cuts his portion of bread in two, and gives it to the little ones, Fradke and Beilke.
Fradke and Beilke stretch out their little thin, black hands, look into their father's eyes, and don't believe him: perhaps he is joking? Children are nashers, they play with father's piece of bread, till at last they begin taking bites out of it. The mother sees and exclaims, coughing all the while :
"It is nothing but eating and stuffing!"
