In her long talks she often said things she had denied before. Once
she told me that she felt a longing to see her relations and
townspeople. But the next time she said that she hated them
mightily. Very likely she did not hate them. We all dislike that
which has caused us pain and harm. So Anna disliked her relations
for having caused her remorse, homesickness, and perhaps shame.
Once her tongue was loosed, she did not stop until she had poured
out the proverbial nine measures given to woman as her share of the
ten measures of speech in the world. She spoke Yiddish even in the
presence of Marusya and of Jacob, who used to visit me once in a
while. By and by Anna began to treat him in a very friendly way.
Only Marusya avoided him, and never spoke a word to him. She simply
hated him.
Thus in time the house of Anna became something like a Jewish
settlement, or rather like some sort of a Klaus, especially when
Pater was away from home. We all used to gather there, and talk
Yiddish, just as in a Klaus. For under Anna's roof we felt
perfectly free. She became a mother to the homeless Cantonists.
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