BROTHERS ALL


"What is the use talking, Mawruss?" Abe Potash protested. "The feller
couldn't even talk ten words English at all."

"Sure, I know," Morris Perlmutter admitted; "but he would quick learn."

"Quick learn!" Abe exclaimed. "What d'ye mean, quick learn? Nowadays I
never seen the like! A greenhorn comes over here from Russland which he
is such an iggeramus he don't know his own name, understand me; and he
expects right away to get a job in a cloak-and-suit concern uptown,
where they would learn him how he should talk English and at the same
time pay him ten dollars a week. Actually, Mawruss, them fellers thinks
they are doing you a favour if they ruin ten garments a day on you in
exchange for learning 'em English. Me, when I come over from Russland, I
was _oser_ so _grossartig_. I was glad to got a job learning on shirts
in a subcellar and the boss boards me for wages. I got an elegant bill
of fare, too, I bet yer, Mawruss. Every day for dinner is salt herring
and potatoes, except Sundays is onions extra. And did that feller learn
me English, Mawruss? _Oser_ a _stück_. I must got to go to night school
to learn English, Mawruss, and I did, Mawruss--and they learned me good
there, Mawruss; and so this here feller you are talking about should do
the same."

"We wouldn't got to learn him English, Abe," Morris declared. "The
feller is a bright, smart feller, and he could pick it up quick enough."

"Sure, I know," Abe rejoined; "and pick up a whole lot of other things,