452 BLINKIN
vorkes, the inhabitants of the aforementioned district of that name. "Was it a question of the upkeep of a Header or of a bath, the support of a burial-society, of a little hospital or refuge, a Rabbi, of providing Sab- bath loaves for the poor, flour for the Passover, the dowry of a needy bride the Pidvorkes were ready ! The sick and lazy, the poverty-stricken and hope- less, found in them support and protection. The Pid- vorkes! They were an inexhaustible well that no one had ever found to fail them, unless the Pidvorke hus- bands happened to be present, on which occasion alone one came away with empty hands.
The fair fame of the Pidvorkes extended beyond Pereyaslav to all poor towns in the neighborhood. Talk of husbands they knew about the Pidvorkes a hun- dred miles round; the least thing, and they pointed out to their wives how they should take a lesson from the Pidvorke women, and then they would be equally rich and happy..
It was not because the Pidvorkes had, within their border, great, green velvety hills and large gardens full of flowers that they had reason to be proud, or others, to be proud of them; not because wide fields, planted with various kinds of corn, stretched for miles around them, the delicate ears swaying in sunshine and wind ; not even because there flowed round the Pidvorkes a river so transparent, so full of the reflection of the sky, you could not decide which was the bluest of the two. Pereyaslav at any rate was not affected by any of these things, perhaps knew nothing of them, and certainly did not wish to know anything, for whoso dares to let his
