A SCHOLAR'S MOTHER 521
"Will you have a glass of tea, Yitzchokel ?" she asked softly, wishful to serve him.
"No, I have just had some."
"Or an apple?"
He was silent.
The mother cleaned a plate, laid two apples on it, and a knife, and placed it on the table beside him.
He peeled one of the apples as elegantly as a grown-up man, repeated the blessing aloud, and ate.
When Taube had seen Yitzchokel eat an apple, she felt more like his mother, and drew a little nearer to him.
And Yitzchokel, as he slowly peeled the second apple, began to talk more amiably:
"To-day I talked with the Dayan about going some- where else. In the house-of-study here, there is nothing to do, nobody to study with, nobody to ask how and where, and in which book, and he advises me to go to the Academy at Makove; he will give me a letter to Eeb Chayyim, the headmaster, and ask him to befriend me."
When Taube heard that her son was about to leave her, she experienced a great shock, but the words, Dayan, Eosh-Yeshiveh, mekarev-sein, and other high-sounding bits of Hebrew, which she did not understand, overawed her, and she felt she must control herself. Besides, the words held some comfort for her : Yitzchokel was hold- ing counsel with her, with her his mother !
"Of course, if the Dayan says so," she answered piously.
"Yes," Yitzchokel continued, "there one can hear lectures with all the commentaries; Eeb Chayyim, the
