Little Citizens | Page 9

too," retorted Algernon. "It's a sickness--a taking
sickness; und comes a man und gives me a card und says I should come
by my house; I'm sick."
Leah gazed on the card in despairing envy. She had hopefully searched

her person for rash or redness, thinking thereby to achieve a ticket to
that promised land where beautiful ladies--as the stereopticon had
shown--sat graciously waving fans beside a smooth, white bed whereon
one lay and rested: only rested: quiet day after quiet day. There had
been no twins in her imaginings, yet here was Algernon already set
upon the way; Algernon, who would be naughty in that blissful place,
and who might even "talk sassy" to the beautiful ladies. Slow tears of
disappointment grew under Leah's heavy lids and splashed upon the
coveted ticket. And the doctor from the Board of Health, come to verify
the more superficial examination of his colleague, misguidedly
launched forth upon a resume of the reassuring lectures.
"You mustn't cry," he remonstrated. "It's only measles and he won't be
very sick. Why, you might keep him here, and I could send you a nurse
to show you how to take care of him if it weren't for that butcher shop
on the ground floor. But he'll be all right. Don't cry."
In a short space the house of Yonowsky was bereft of its more noisy
son, and peace reigned. Percival went lonely and early to bed. Leah sat
late on the steps with Aaron, and, on the next morning, Percival
duplicated the redness, the diagnosis, and the departure of his brother,
and Leah came into her own.
Then were the days wondrous long. There was time for all the pleasures
from which she had been so long debarred. Time to read, time to sew,
time to pay and to receive shy, short morning calls, time to scrub and
polish until her room shone, time for experiments in cookery, time to
stretch her father's wages to undreamed-of lengths, even time so to
cheer and wheedle Mr. Yonowsky that she dared to ask his permission
to bring Aaron up to her spotless domain. And Aaron, with a thumping
of the hearts not due entirely to the height and steepness of the stairs,
came formally to call upon his young divinity. The visit was a great
success. Mr. Yonowsky blossomed under the sun of Aaron's deference
and learning into an expansiveness which amazed his daughter, and the
men discussed the law, the scriptures, the election, the Czar, nihilism,
socialism, the tariff, and the theatre. But here Mr. Yonowsky lapsed
into gloom. He had not visited a theatre for seven years--not since his

wife's death.
"And Miss Leah?" Aaron questioned.
"Never, oh, never!" she breathed resignedly, yet so longingly that
Aaron then and there arranged that he and she and Mr. Yonowsky
should visit the Thalia Theatre on the following night. And Leah, with
the glad and new assurance that the boys were safe, fell into happy
devisings of a suitable array. When young Kastrinsky left after formal
and prescribed adieus to his hostess, he dragged his host out to listen to
a campaign speech.
During the weeks that followed, even Mr. Yonowsky came to see the
sweet uses of the Board of Health and to ponder long and deeply upon
the nature of the "taking sickness." No longer forced to do perpetual,
though ineffective, sentinel duty, he gradually resumed his place in the
world of men and spent placid evenings at the synagogue, the
Educational Alliance, the theatre, and the East Side Democratic Union.
Leah bore him company at the theatre when she might, and Aaron
followed Leah until parental pride swelled high under Mr. Yonowsky's
green Prince Albert coat. For well he saw the looks of admiration
which were turned upon his daughter as she sat by his side and
consumed cold pink lemonade.
He received two of the roundabout proposals which etiquette demands,
and began to gather a dowry for Leah and to recall extraordinary
outstanding securities to that end. But, before these things were
accomplished, his sons and his troubles returned upon him. With
renewed energy, stimulated imagination, and enriched profanity, "them
Yonowsky devils" came home, and their reign of mischief set in afresh.
They had always been unruly; they were utterly unmanageable now.
Daily was Leah summoned to the big red school-house by the
long-suffering Miss Bailey, and nightly was Mr. Yonowsky forced to
cancel engagements at club or synagogue and to stay at home to
"explanation them boys" to outraged neighbours.
Aaron could still control them, but he was never brought upstairs now.

How could Leah expect him to enjoy conversations carried on amid the
yells of Algernon and Percival in freedom, or their shrieks in durance?
The twins came home one noontime full of gossip and