at all."

I plied him with further questions and he answered them all,
patiently and fondly, illustrating his explanations with a thread for
a violin string, my mother looking from him to me beamingly

When we were through she questioned him: "Do you think he
understands it all?" "He certainly does. He has a good head," he
answered, with a wink. And she flushed with happiness

CHAPTER III THE tuition fee at a school for religious instruction
or cheder was from eight to ten rubles (five dollars) for a term of
six months. My mother could not afford it. On the other hand, she
would not hear of sending me to the free cheder of our town,
because of its reputation for poor instruction. So she importuned
and harassed two distant relatives of ours until they agreed to raise
part of the sum between them. The payments were made with
anything but promptness, the result being that I was often turned
out of school.

Mother, however, would lose no time in bringing me back. She
would implore the schoolmaster to take pity on the poor, helpless
woman that she was, assuring him, with some weird oaths, that
she would pay him every penny. If that failed she would burst into
a flood of threats and imprecations, daring him to let a fatherless
boy grow up in ignorance of the Word of God. This was followed
by similar scenes at the houses of my cousins, until finally I was
allowed to resume my studies, sometimes at the same cheder,
sometimes at some other one. There were scores of such private
schools in our town, and before I got through my elementary