the synagogue. They did not take to each other.

On one occasion my mother found Reb Sender's daughter at the
house of prayer. Having her father's figure and features, the girl
was anything but prepossessing. My mother surveyed her from
head to foot

That evening when I was eating my supper at home my mother
said: "Look here, Davie. I want you to understand that Reb
Sender's wife is up to some scheme about you. She wants you to
marry that monkey of hers. That's what she is after." I was not
quite fifteen

"Leave me alone," I retorted, coloring

"Never mind blushing. It is she who tells Reb Sender to be so good
to you.

The foxy thing! She thinks I don't see through her. That scarecrow
of a girl is old enough to be your mother, and she has not a penny
to her marriage portion, either. A fine match for a boy like you!
Why, you can get the best girl in town."

She said it aloud, by way of flaunting my future before our
room-mates. Two of the three families who shared the room with
us, by the way, were the same as when I was a little boy. Moving
was a rare event in the life of the average Antomir family

Red Esther was still there. She was one of those who heard my
mother's boastful warning to me. She grinned. After a little, as I