Page:Etta Block - One-act plays from the Yiddish (1923).pdf/159

 one, Close each little eye.” She dozes off presently. David re-enters very quietly, unnoticed by Chan- nah.)

DAVID (fimidly) Channah!

CHANNAH (glad at his return) Why—David!

DAVID Channah, I heard how you cried—there behind the door, I heard. You are not angry with me for listening, are you, Channah?

CHANNAH (softly)

No.

DaviD (as if to himself) Channah’s heart aches! I know, too, what it is to grieve. In the factory it sometimes hap- pens that I injure my hand badly and it bleeds, or that I get a heavy blow somewhere else. Once a machine crushed my foot. But all of this cannot be compared with the grief of the heart. What pains can be like that?!

CHANNAH (sympathetically) You suffer, too, David? What is it you want for? You earn plenty. You have enough to eat, then, what can trouble you?

DAVID Iam anorphan. My father I do not remember, and my mother died when I was barely four years old. I was eight when I was told that I must go out and earn my own bread. No one troubled about my life, still less about my heart. (Both remain silent.)