"What?" I asked suddenly,
"Anna?! Anna--a Jewess too?!"
Then I noticed that Anna was watching Marusya's bed. I saw she was
afraid Marusya might overhear what was not intended for her ears.
She put on her night robe, came to my bed, and began in a whisper:
"Are you sleeping? Get up, my boy, wake up!"
I did "wake up," and put on a frightened appearance. "What did you
cry about?" she asked. "I dreamt something terrible." "What did
you dream about" I kept silent. "Tell me, tell me!" she insisted.
"I saw my mother in a dream." "Is she alive yet?" I told a lie. I
said my mother was long dead. "And what did she tell you?" "She
said that . . . ." "Tell me, tell me!" "I cannot repeat that in
Russian." "Then say it in Yiddish." I looked with make-believe
surprise at Anna. "She said: 'I shall come to Anna at night and
choke her, if she doesn't give up abusing you.'" At this Anna
turned red. I continued: "And she said also, 'Anna ought to have
pity on Jewish children, because she is a Jewess herself.'" . . . .
My scheme worked well. Anna began to treat me in an entirely
different way, and my position in the house not only improved, but
became the opposite of what it had been.
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