Page:Yiddish Tales.djvu/220

 216 LERNER

And the terrible, fiery frosts !

Frozen people were brought into the town nearly every day.

Oi, Jews, how Bertzi Wasserfiihrer struggled, what a time he had of it ! Enemies of Zion, it was nearly the death of him !

And suddenly the snow began to stop falling, all at once, and then things were worse than ever there was a sea of water, an ocean of mud.

And Passover coming on with great strides!

For three days before Passover he had not come home to sleep. Who talks of eating, drinking, and sleeping? He and his man toiled day and night, like six horses, like ten oxen.

The last day before Passover was the worst of all. His horse suddenly came to the conclusion that sooner than live such a life, it would die. So it died and van- ished somewhere in the depths of the Kamenivke clay.

And Bertzi the water-carrier and his man had to drag the cart with the great water-barrel themselves, the whole day till long after dark.

VI

It is already eleven, twelve, half past twelve at night, and Bertzi's chest, throat, and nostrils continue to pipe and to whistle, to sob and to sigh.

The room is colder and darker, the small fire in the oven went out long ago, and only little stumps of candles remain.

Eochtzi walks and runs about the loom, she weeps and wrings her hands.