Children of the Ghetto

and they dress, oh, so beautifully! With fur tippets and six-button gloves. I could never afford it, for even when I was earning five shillings a week I should have to give most of it to father and the children.'

'But if you're very good-I dare say some of the great ladies like the Rothschilds will buy you nice clothes. I have heard they are very good to clever children.'

'No, then the other teachers would know I was getting charity! And they would mock at me. I heard Miss Hyams make fun of a teacher because she wore the same dress as last winter. I don't think I should like to be a teacher after all, though it is nice to be able to stand with your back to the fire in the winter. The girls would know-'' Esther stopped and blushed.

'Would know what, dear?'

'Well, they would know father,' said Esther in low tones. 'They would see him selling things in the Lane and they wouldn't do what I told them.'

'Nonsense, Esther. I believe most of the teachers' fathers are just as bad-I mean as poor. Look at Miss Hyams's own father.'

'Oh Debby! I do hope that's true. Besides when I was earning five shillings a week, I could buy father a new coat, couldn't I? And then there would be no need for him to stand in the Lane with lemons or 'four-corner fringes,' would there?'

'No, dear. You shall be a teacher, I prophesy, and who knows? Some day you may be Head Mistress!'

Esther laughed a startled little laugh of delight, with a suspicion of a sob in it. 'What! Me! Me go round and make all the teachers do their work. Oh, wouldn't I catch them gossiping! I know their tricks!'

'You seem to look after your teacher well. Do you ever call her over the coals for gossiping?' inquired Dutch Debby, amused.

'No, no,' protested Esther quite seriously. 'I like to hear them gossiping. When my teacher and Miss Davis, who's in the next room, and a few other teachers get together, I learn-Oh such a lot!-from their conversation.'

'Then they do teach you after all,' laughed Debby.

'Yes, but it's not on the Time Table,' said Esther, shaking her little head sapiently. 'It's mostly about young men. Did you ever have a young man, Debby?'

'Don't-don't ask such questions, child!' Debby bent over her needle-work.

'Why not?' persisted Esther. 'If I only had a young man when I grew up, I should be proud of him. Yes, you're trying to turn your head away. I'm sure you had. Was he nice like Lord Eversmonde or Captain Andrew Sinclair? Why you're crying, Debby!'

'Don't be a little fool, Esther! A tiny fly has just flown into my eye-poor little thing! He hurts me and does himself no good.'

'Let me see, Debby,' said Esther. 'Perhaps I shall be in time to save him.'

'No, don't trouble.'

'Don't be so cruel, Debby. You're as bad as Solomon, who pulls off flies' wings to see if they can fly without them.'

'He's dead now. Go on with 'Lady Ann's Rival;' we've been wasting the whole afternoon talking. Take my advice, Esther, and don't stuff your head with ideas about young men. You're too young. Now, dear, I'm ready. Go on.'

'Where was I? Oh yes. 'Lord Eversmonde folded the fair young form to his manly bosom and pressed kiss after kiss upon her ripe young lips, which responded passionately to his own. At last she recovered herself and cried reproachfully, Oh Sigismund, why do you persist in coming here, when the Duke forbids it?' Oh, do you know, Debby, father said the other day I oughtn't to come here?'

'Oh no, you must,' cried Debby impulsively. 'I couldn't part with you now.'

'Father says people say you are not good,' said Esther candidly.

Debby breathed painfully. 'Well!' she whispered.

'But I said people were liars. You are good!'

'Oh, Esther, Esther!' sobbed Debby, kissing the earnest little face with a vehemence that surprised the child.

'I think father only said that,' Esther went on, 'because he fancies I neglect Sarah and Isaac when he's at Shool and they quarrel so about their birthdays when they're together. But they don't slap one another hard. I'll tell you what! Suppose I bring Sarah down here!'

'Well, but won't she cry and be miserable here, if you read, and with no Isaac to play with?'

'Oh no,' said Esther confidently. 'She'll keep Bobby company.'

Bobby took kindly to little Sarah also. He knew no other dogs and in such circumstances a sensible animal falls back on human beings. He had first met Debby herself quite casually and the two lonely beings took to each other. Before that meeting Dutch Debby was subject to wild temptations. Once she half starved herself and put aside ninepence a week for almost three months and purchased one-eighth of a lottery ticket from Sugarman the Shadchan, who recognized her existence for the occasion. The fortune did not come off.

Debby saw less and less of Esther as the months crept on again towards winter, for the little girl feared her hostess might feel constrained to offer her food, and the children required more soothing. Esther would say very little about her home life, though Debby got to know a great deal about her school-mates and her teacher.

One summer evening after Esther had passed into the hands of Miss Miriam Hyams she came to Dutch Debby with a grave face and said: 'Oh, Debby. Miss Hyams is not a heroine.'

'No?' said Debby, amused. 'You were so charmed with her at first.'

'Yes, she is very pretty and her hats are lovely. But she is not a heroine.'

'Why, what's happened?'

'You know what lovely weather it's been all day?'

'Yes.'

'Well, this morning all in the middle of the Scripture lesson, she said to us, 'What a pity, girls, we've got to stay cooped up here this bright weather'-you know she chats to us so nicely-'in some schools they have half- holidays on Wednesday afternoons in the summer. Wouldn't it be nice if we could have them and be out in the sunshine in Victoria Park?' 'Hoo, yes, teacher, wouldn't that be jolly?' we all cried. Then teacher said: 'Well, why not ask the Head Mistress for a holiday this afternoon? You're the highest standard in the school-I dare say if you ask for it, the whole school will get a holiday. Who will be spokes-woman?' Then all the girls said I must be because I was the first girl in the class and sounded all my h's, and when the Head Mistress came into the room I up and curtseyed and asked her if we could have a holiday this afternoon on account of the beautiful sunshine. Then the Head Mistress put on her eye-glasses and her face grew black and the sunshine seemed to go out of the room. And she said 'What! After all the holidays we have here, a month at New Year and a fortnight at Passover, and all the fast-days! I am surprised that you girls should be so lazy and idle and ask for more. Why don't you take example by your teacher? Look at Miss Hyams.' We all looked at Miss Hyams, but she was looking for some papers in her desk. 'Look how Miss Hyams works!' said the Head Mistress. 'She never grumbles, she never asks for a holiday!' We all looked again at Miss Hyams, but she hadn't yet found the papers. There was an awful silence; you could have heard a pin drop. There wasn't a single cough or rustle of a dress. Then the Head Mistress turned to me and she said: 'And you, Esther Ansell, whom I always thought so highly of, I'm surprised at your being the ringleader in such a disgraceful request. You ought to know better. I shall bear it in mind, Esther Ansell.' With that she sailed out, stiff and straight as a poker, and the door closed behind her with a bang.'

'Well, and what did Miss Hyams say then?' asked Debby, deeply interested.

'She said: 'Selina Green, and what did Moses do when the Children of Israel grumbled for water?' She just went on with the Scripture lesson, as if nothing had happened.'

'I should tell the Head Mistress who sent me on,' cried Debby indignantly.

'Oh, no,' said Esther shaking her head. 'That would be mean. It's a matter for her own conscience. Oh, but I do wish,' she concluded, 'we had had a holiday. It would have been so lovely out in the Park.'

Victoria Park was the Park to the Ghetto. A couple of miles off, far enough to make a visit to it an excursion, it was a perpetual blessing to the Ghetto. On rare Sunday afternoons the Ansell family minus the Bube toiled there and back en masse, Moses carrying Isaac and Sarah by turns upon his shoulder. Esther loved the Park in all weathers, but best of all in the