A Ghetto Violet

A Ghetto Violet, by Leopold
Kompert

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Title: A Ghetto Violet From "Christian and Leah"
Author: Leopold Kompert
Translator: A. S. Arnold
Release Date: September 18, 2007 [EBook #22663]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A GHETTO
VIOLET ***

Produced by David Widger

A GHETTO VIOLET
By Leopold Kompert

From "Christian and Leah." Translated by A. S. Arnold.
1869
Through the open window came the clear trill of a canary singing
blithely in its cage. Within the tidy, homely little room a pale-faced girl
and a youth of slender frame listened intently while the bird sang its
song. The girl was the first to break the silence.
"Ephraim, my brother!" she said.
"What is it, dear Viola?"
"I wonder does the birdie know that it is the Sabbath to-day?"
"What a child you are!" answered Ephraim.
"Yes, that 's always the way; when you clever men can't explain a thing,
you simply dismiss the question by calling it childish," Viola exclaimed,
as though quite angry. "And, pray, why should n't the bird know? The
whole week it scarcely sang a note: to-day it warbles and warbles so
that it makes my head ache. And what's the reason? Every Sabbath it's
just the same, I notice it regularly. Shall I tell you what my idea is?
"The whole week long the little bird looks into our room and sees
nothing but the humdrum of work-a-day life. To-day it sees the bright
rays of the Sabbath lamp and the white Sabbath cloth upon the table.
Don't you think I 'm right, Ephraim?"
"Wait, dear Viola," said Ephraim, and he went to the cage.
The bird's song suddenly ceased.
"Now you 've spoilt its Sabbath!" cried the girl, and she was so excited
that the book which had been lying upon her lap fell to the ground.
Ephraim turned towards her; he looked at her solemnly, and said
quietly:

"Pick up your prayer-book first, and then I 'll answer. A holy book
should not be on the ground like that. Had our mother dropped her
prayer-book, she would have kissed it.... Kiss it, Viola, my child!"
Viola did so.
"And now I 'll tell you, dear Viola, what I think is the reason why the
bird sings so blithely to-day.... Of course, I don't say I 'm right."
Viola's brown eyes were fixed inquiringly upon her brother's face.
"How seriously you talk to-day," she said, making a feeble attempt at a
smile. "I was only joking. Must n't I ask if the bird knows anything
about the Sabbath?"
"There are subjects it is sinful to joke about, and this may be one of
them, Viola."
"You really quite frighten me, Ephraim."
"You little goose, I don't want to frighten you," said Ephraim, while a
faint flush suffused his features. "I 'll tell you my opinion about the
singing of the bird. I think, dear Viola, that our little canary knows...
that before long it will change its quarters."
"You 're surely not going to sell it or give it away?" cried the girl, in
great alarm; and springing to her feet, she quickly drew her brother
away from the cage.
"No, I 'm not going to sell it nor give it away," said Ephraim, whose
quiet bearing contrasted strongly with his sister's excitement "Is it
likely that I should do anything that would give you pain? And yet, I
have but to say one word... and I 'll wager that you will be the first to
open the cage and say to the bird, 'Fly, fly away, birdie, fly away
home!'"
"Never, never!" cried the girl.
"Viola," said Ephraim beseechingly, "I have taken a vow. Surely you

would not have me break it?"
"A vow?" asked his sister.
"Viola," Ephraim continued, as he bent his head down to the girl's face,
"I have vowed to myself that whenever he... our father... should return,
I would give our little bird its freedom. It shall be free, free as he will
be."
"Ephraim!"
"He is coming--he is already on his way home."
Viola flung her arms round her brother's neck. For a long time brother
and sister remained locked in a close embrace.
Meanwhile the bird resumed its jubilant song.
"Do you hear how it sings again?" said Ephraim; and he gently stroked
his sister's hair. "It knows that it will soon be free."
"A father out of jail!" sobbed Viola, as she released