All-of-a-Kind Family: List 3

“Henny, I’m afraid you’d be more of a hindrance than a help.”

Throughout the Festival of Passover, which lasts eight days, no bread or leavened foods may be eaten.

When he came, the “hospital room” was fixed up so that it could accommodate four patients, and Charlotte and Gertie were put to bed.

In the upper right-hand corner of this platter, Papa had placed the paschal lamb (a shank bone) and in the upper left-hand corner, a roasted egg, both symbols of the sacrifices offered up by the Jews in ancient times on this holy day.

In the lower left-hand corner lay a sprig of parsley, symbol of springtime and of hope.

The little books
 were so full of droll pictures that even Gertie had always found pleasure in looking through them.

Papa gave his table companions a bit of matzoth, and a benediction was recited by the three.

The door was opened to allow him to enter so that he might partake of the wine.

Always the children would watch the door intently, hopeful that they might see the Prophet or at least hear the rush of his wings as he flew in.

Then Doctor Fuchs felt that Henny was not susceptible to the disease or she would have come down with it long ago.

Still, when at last the day for fumigating the apartment arrived, it was a happy and thankful group that hailed the inspector from the Board of Health.

“Such a nice flag,” said Gertie, as she put her hand out gingerly to touch the red-white-and-blue bunting which lay rolled up on the kitchen couch.

“Such a nice flag,” said Gertie, as she put her hand out gingerly to touch the red-white-and-blue bunting which lay rolled up on the kitchen couch.

Youngsters in small groups yelled and hopped up and down as they waited with bated breath for their firecrackers to explode.

At times the noise was deafening! And now Mama’s children were to add their share to the general hubbub.

He was back on the East Side now—back to the narrow, smelly streets, teeming with people.

All day the sun had blazed on a sweltering city, and at night many of the East Siders escaped from the stifling air of their boxlike flats to sleep on fire escapes and rooftops.

Though it was early in the morning, the car depot was already full to overflowing with the noisy, pushing, excited throng.

After the first shock of discovering about his sweetheart, Ella’s thoughts had been captivated with the romance, imagining various happy endings to the affair.

Soon she had a mental picture of Charlie’s girl; she was lovely, of course, and filled with the highest ideals; kind and gentle—but proud and high-spirited, too.

“Thank goodness!” Mama exclaimed, gathering up her children and bundles. She counted her brood again.

With these, they ate hard-boiled eggs and whole tomatoes sprinkled liberally with salt.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry!” urged the loud voice of a barker who stood before a large tent. “Step inside, folks, and you will see the wonders of the world, all for the price of only one dime. You will see the Tallest Man and the Shortest Little Lady in the
 whole world! We will show you the Tattooed Lady and the Wild Man From Borneo. These and many, many others. All you have to pay is ten cents. Ten cents!”

And there inside the station house, seated on a bench among a number of weepy, disheveled children, was a smiling little girl with blonde curls.

She was swinging her feet and munching away in complete rapture on an enormous chocolate ice-cream cone.

Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, had been heralded with the blowing of the ram’s horn in the synagogue; ten days later Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, had been honored with fasting and prayer.

“Oh, Papa, may we watch you? May we, Papa?” the children clamored excitedly.

Such sawing and hammering and wiggle-wagging of tongues as went on in Mama’s backyard! Mama had to shut the kitchen window to keep out the noise. But the children revelled in it.

“Papa will spread fresh green branches across the planks of wood and it will be the loveliest ceiling anyone could possibly want. Sparse enough so that the sun can shine through in the daytime and the stars peep in at night.”

“Isn’t it nice building the house you’re going to live in?” Sarah said earnestly.

“And to think it’ll be all ours for a whole month,” Henny exulted.

For a fleeting moment, Ella felt again the pain of that night when Papa had first told her about Charlie.

Next out the window came a large soup tureen filled with good hot chicken soup.

Inside the tureen floated a Succos delicacy—kreplech (meat-filled dumplings).

There hadn’t been a new baby in five years. The children were delighted at the prospect; that is—four of them were delighted.