Have you no money at
all?"
I showed him the quarter I had received from the cloak contractor
"Poor fellow! Is that all you have? There are places where you can
get a night's lodging for fifteen cents, but what are you going to do
afterward? I am simply ashamed of myself."
"'Hospitality,'" he quoted from the Talmud, "'is one of the things
which the giver enjoys in this world and the fruit of which he
relishes in the world to come.' To think that I cannot offer a
Talmudic scholar a night's rest! Alas! America has turned me into
a mound of ashes."
"You were well off in Russia, weren't you?" I inquired, in
astonishment.
For, indeed, I had never heard of any but poor people emigrating to
America
"I used to spend my time reading Talmud at the synagogue," was
his reply
Many of his answers seemed to fit, not the question asked, but one
which was expected to follow it. You might have thought him
anxious to forestall your next query in order to save time and
words, had it not been so difficult for him to keep his mouth shut
"She," he said, referring to his wife, "had a nice little business.
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