Yiddish Tales/Abraham Raisin/The Charitable Loan

 

THE CHARITABLE LOAN

The largest fair in Klemenke is "Ulas." The little town waits for Ulas with a beating heart and extravagant hopes. "Ulas," say the Klemenke shopkeepers and traders, "is a Heavenly blessing; were it not for Ulas, Klemenke would long ago have been 'äus Klemenke,' America would have taken its last few remaining Jews to herself."

But for Ulas one must have the wherewithal—the shopkeepers need wares, and the traders, money.

Without the wherewithal, even Ulas is no good! And Chayyim, the dealer in produce, goes about gloomily. There are only three days left before Ulas, and he hasn't a penny wherewith to buy corn to trade with. And the other dealers in produce circulate in the marketplace with caps awry, with thickly-rolled cigarettes in their mouths and walking-sticks in their hands, and they are talking hard about the fair.

"In three days it will be lively!" calls out one.

"Pshshsh," cries another in ecstasy, "in three days' time the place will be packed!"

And Chayyim turns pale. He would like to call down a calamity on the fair, he wishes it might rain, snow, or storm on that day, so that not even a mad dog should come to the market-place; only Chayyim knows that Ulas is no weakling, Ulas is not afraid of the strongest wind—Ulas is Ulas! 390 KAISIN

And Chayyim's eyes are ready to start out of his head. A charitable loan where is one to get a chari- table loan? If only five and twenty rubles!

He asks it of everyone, but they only answer with a merry laugh : '

"Are you mad ? Money just before a fair ?"

And it seems to Chayyim that he really will go mad.

"Suppose you went across to Loibe-Bares?" suggests his wife, who takes her full share in his distress.

"I had thought of that myself/' answers Chayyim, meditatively.

"But what?" asks the wife.

Chayyim is about to reply, "But I can't go there, I haven't the courage," only that it doesn's suit him to be so frank with his wife, and he answers :

"Devil take him ! He won't lend anything !"

"Try ! It won't hurt," she persists.

And Chayyim reflects that he has no other resource, that Loibe-Bares is a rich man, and living in the same street, a neighbor in fact, and that he requires no money for the fair, being a dealer in lumber and timber.

"Give me out my Sabbath overcoat!" says Chayyim to his wife, in a resolute tone.

"Didn't I say so?" the wife answers. "It's the best thing you can do, to go to him."

Chayyim placed himself before a half-broken looking- glass which was nailed to the wall, smoothed his beard with both hands, tightened his earlocks, and then took off his hat, and gave it a polish with his sleeve.

"Just look and see if I haven't got any white on my coat off the wall !" THE CHARITABLE LOAN 391

"If you haven't ?" the wife answered, and began slap- ping him with both hands over the shoulders.

"I thought we once had a little clothes-brush. Where is it? ha?"

"Perhaps you dreamt it/' replied his wife, still slap- ping him on the shoulders, and she went on, "Well, I should say you had got some white on your coat!"

"Come, that'll do!" said Chayyim, almost angrily. "I'll go now."

He drew on his Sabbath overcoat with a sigh, and muttering, "Very likely, isn't it, he'll lend me money !" he went out.

On the way to Loibe-Bares, Chayyim's heart began to fail him. Since the day that Loibe-Bares came to live at the end of the street, Chayyim had been in the house only twice, and the path Chayyim was treading now was as bad as an examination: the "approach" to him, the light rooms, the great mirrors, the soft chairs, Loibe-Bares himself with his long, thick beard and his black eyes with their "gevirish" glance, the lady, the merry, happy children, even the maid, who had remained in his memory since those two visits all these things together terrified him, and he asked him- self, "Where are you going to? Are you mad? Home with you at once!" and every now and then he would stop short on the way. Only the thought that Ulas was near, and that he had no money to buy corn, drove him to continue.

"He won't lend anything it's no use hoping." Chay- yim was preparing himself as he walked for the shock of disappointment; but he felt that if he gave way to 392 RAISIN

that extent, he would never be able to open his mouth to make his request known, and he tried to cheer him- self:

"If I catch him in a good humor, he will lend ! "Why should he be afraid of lending me a few rubles over the fair? I shall tell him that as soon as ever I have sold the corn, he shall have the loan back. I will swear it by wife and children, he will believe me and I will pay it back."

But this does not make Chayyim any the bolder, and he tries another sort of comfort, another remedy against nervousness.

"He isn't a bad man and, after all, our acquaintance won't date from to-day we've been living in the same street twenty years Parabotzker Street "

And Chayyim recollects that a fortnight ago, as Loibe-Bares was passing his house on his way to the market-place, and he, Chayyim, was standing in the yard, he gave him the greeting due to a gentleman ("and I could swear I gave him my hand," Chayyim reminded himself). Loibe-Bares had made a friendly reply, he had even stopped and asked, like an old acquaintance, "Well, Chayyim, and how are you getting on ?" And Chayyim strains his memory and remembers further that he answered on this wise:

"I thank you for asking! Heaven forgive me, one does a little bit of business !"

And Chayyim is satisfied with his reply, "I answered him quite at my ease."

Chayyim resolves to speak to him this time even more leisurely and independently, not to cringe before him. THE CHAEITABLE LOAN 393

Chayyim could already see Loibe-Bares' house in the distance. He coughed till his throat was clear, stroked his beard down, and looked at his coat.

"Still a very good coat!" he said aloud, as though trying to persuade himself that the coat was still good, so that he might feel more courage and more proper pride.

But when he got to Loibe-Bares' big house, when the eight large windows looking onto the street flashed into his eyes, the windows being brightly illuminated from within, his heart gave a flutter.

"Oi, Lord of the World, help !" came of its own accord to his lips. Then he felt ashamed, and caught himself up, "Ett, nonsense!"

As he pushed the door open, the "prayer" escaped him once more, "Help, mighty God ! or it will be the death of me !"

Loibe-Bares was seated at a large table covered with a clean white table-cloth, and drinking while he talked cheerfully with his household.

"There's a Jew come, Tate!" called out a boy of twelve, on seeing Chayyim standing by the door.

"So there is !" called out a second little boy, still more merrily, fixing Chayyim with his large, black, mischievous eyes.

All the rest of those at table began looking at Chay- yim, and he thought every moment that he must fall of a heap onto the floor.

"It will look very bad if I fall," he said to himself, made a step forward, and, without saying good evening, stammered out: 394 RAISIN

"I just happened to be passing, you understand, and I saw you sitting so I knew you were at home well, I thought one ought to call neighbors "

"Well, welcome, welcome !" said Loibe-Bares, smiling. "You've come at the right moment. Sit down."

A stone rolled off Chayyim's heart at this reply, and, with a glance at the two little boys, he quietly took a seat.

"Leah, give Eeb 'Chayyim a glass of tea," commanded Loibe-Bares.

"Quite a kind man!" thought Chayyim. "May the Almighty come to his aid !"

He gave his host a grateful look, and would gladly have fallen onto the Gevir's thick neck, and kissed him.

"Well, and what are you about?" inquired his host.

"Thanks be to God, one lives !"

The maid handed him a glass of tea. He said, "Thank you," and then was sorry : it is not the proper thing to thank a servant. He grew red and bit his lips.

"Have some jelly with it!" Loibe-Bares suggested.

"An excellent man, an excellent man !" thought Chay- yim, astonished. "He is sure to lend."

"You deal in something?" asked Loibe-Bares.

"Why, yes," answered Chayyim. "One's little bit of business, thank Heaven, is no worse than other peo- ple's!"

"What price are oats fetching now?" it occurred to the Gevir to ask.

Oats had fallen of late, but it seemed better to Chay- yim to say that they had risen.

"They have risen very much !" he declared in a mer- cantile tone of voice. THE CHARITABLE LOAN 395

"Well, and have you some oats ready?" inquired the Gevir further.

"I've got a nice lot of oats, and they didn't cost me much, either. I got them quite cheap," replied Chayyim, with more warmth, forgetting, while he spoke, that he hadn't had an ear of oats in his granary for weeks.

"And you are thinking of doing a little speculating ?" asked Loibe-Bares. "Are you not in need of any money ?"

"Thanks be to God," replied Chayyim, proudly, "I have never yet been in need of money."

"Why did I say that?" he thought then, in terror at his own words. "How am I going to ask for a loan now?" and Chayyim wanted to back the cart a little, only Loibe-Bares prevented him by saying :

"So I understand you make a good thing of it, you are quite a wealthy man."

"My wealth be to my enemies!" Chayyim wanted to draw back, but after a glance at Loibe-Bares' shining face, at the blue jar with the jelly, he answered proudly :

"Thank Heaven, I have nothing to complain of !"

"There goes your charitable loan !" The thought came like a kick in the back of his head. "Why are you boast- ing like that? Tell him you want twenty-five rubles for Ulas that he must save you, that you are in despair, that "

But Chayyim fell deeper and deeper into a contented and happy way of talking, praised his business more and more, and conversed with the Gevir as with an equal. 396 RAISIN

But he soon began to feel he was one too many, that he should not have sat there so long, or have talked in that way. It would have been better to have talked about the fair, about a loan. Now it is too late :

"I have no need of money!" and Chayyim gave a despairing look at Loibe-Bares' cheerful face, at the two little boys who sat opposite and watched him with sly, mischievous eyes, and who whispered knowingly to each other, and then smiled more knowingly still!

A cold perspiration covered him. He rose from his chair.

"You are going already?" observed Loibe-Bares, politely.

"Now perhaps I could ask him!" It flashed across Chayyim's mind that he might yet save himself, but, stealing a glance at the two boys with the roguish eyes that watched him so slyly, he replied with dignity :

"I must ! Business ! There is no time !" and it seems to him, as he goes toward the door, that the two little boys with the mischievous eyes are putting out their tongues after him, and that Loibe-Bares himself smiles and says, "Stick your tongues out further, further still !"

Chayyim's shoulders seem to burn, and he makes haste to get out of the house.