Little Citizens | Page 5

assured.
"So my papa he writes a letter on my uncle how he could to pay that
thousen dollers. Goes months. Comes no thousen dollers. So my papa
he goes on the lawyer und the lawyer he writes on my uncle a letter
how he should to pay. Goes months. Comes no thousen dollers." At
each repetition of these fateful words Sadie shook her serious head,
pursed up her rosy mouth, folded her hands resignedly, and sighed
deeply. Clearly this was a tale more than twice told, for the voice and
manner of Sadie were as the voice and manner of Mrs. Lazarus
Gonorowsky, and the recital was plagiarism--masterly and complete.
"And then?" prompted Teacher, lest the conversation languish.

"Well, my papa writes some more a letter on mine uncle. Oh-o-oh, a
awful bossy-und-mad letter. All the mad words what my papa knows
he writes on mine uncle. Und my mamma she sets by my papa's side
und all the mad words what my mamma knows she tells on my papa
und he writes them, too, on mine uncle. Mine uncle (that's Eva's papa)
could to have a fierce mad sooner he seen that bossy letter. But goes
two days. Comes no thousen dollers."
Here ensued a long and dramatic pause.
"Well, comes no thousen dollers. Comes nothings. On'y by night my
mamma she puts me on my bed; when comes my uncle! He comes und
makes a knopping on our door. I couldn't to tell even how he makes
knopping. I had such a scare I was green on the face, und my heart was
going so you could to hear. I'm a nervous child, Missis Bailey, und my
face is all times green sooner I gets a scare."
This last observation was a triumph of mimicry, and recalled Mrs.
Gonorowsky so vividly as to make her atmosphere of garlic and old
furniture quite perceptible. "So my mamma hears how my uncle
knopps und says 'Lemme in--lemme in.' She says ('scuse me,
Teacher)--she says 'he must be' ('scuse me) 'drunk.' That's how my
mamma says.
"So goes my papa by the door und says 'Who stands?' Und my uncle he
says 'Lemme in.' So-o-oh my papa he opens the door. Stands my
unclemit cheeky looks und he showed a fist on my papa. My papa has a
fierce mad sooner he seen that fist--fists is awful cheeky when
somebody ain't paid. So my papa he says ('scuse me)--it's fierce how he
says, on'y he had a mad over that fist. He says ('scuse me), 'Go to hell!'
und my uncle, what ain't paid that thousen dollers, he says just like that
to my papa. He says too ('scuse me, Teacher), 'Go to hell!' So-o-oh then
my papa hits my uncle (that's Eva's papa), und how my papa is strong I
couldn't to tell even. He pulls every morning by the extrasizer, und he's
got such a muscles! So he hits my uncle (that's Eva's papa), und my
uncle he fall und he fall und he fall--we live by the third floor, und he
fall off of the third floor by the street--und even in falling he says like
that ('scuse me, Teacher), 'Go to hell! go to hell! go to hell!' Ain't it

somethin' fierce how he says? On all the steps he says, 'Go to hell! go
to hell! go to hell!'"
Miss Bailey had listened to authoritative lectures upon "The Place and
Influence of the Teacher in Community Life," and was debating as to
whether she had better inflict her visit of remonstrance upon Mr.
Lazarus Gonorowsky, of the powerful and cultivated muscle, or upon
Mr. Nathan Gonorowsky, of the deplorable manners, when this
opportunity to bring the higher standards of living into the home was
taken from her. The house of Gonorowsky, in jagged fragments, was
tested as by fire and came forth united.
Eva was absent one morning, and Sadie presented the explanation in a
rather dirty envelope:
Dear Miss:
Excuse pliss that Eva Gonarofsky comes not on the school. We was
moving und she couldn't to find her clothes. Yurs Resptphs, Her elders,
Nathan Gonorowsky, Becky Ganurwoski.
"Is Eva going far away?" asked Teacher. "Will she come to this school
any more?"
"Teacher, yiss ma'an, sure she comes; she lives now by my house. My
uncle he lives by my house, too. Und my aunt."
"And you're not angry with your cousin anymore?"
"Teacher, no ma'an; I'm loving mit her. She's got on now all mine best
clothes the while her mamma buys her new. My aunt buys new clothes,
too. Und my uncle."
Sadie reported this shopping epidemic so cheerily that Teacher asked
with mild surprise:
"Where are all their old things?"
"Teacher, they're burned. Und my uncle's store und his all of goods,

und his