She was crouching on the fender trying to get some warmth at the little fire extracted from Reb Shemuel's half-crown. December continued gray; the room was dim and a spurt of flame played on her pale earnest face. It was a face that never lost a certain ardency of color even at its palest: the hair was dark and abundant, the eyes were large and thoughtful, the nose slightly aquiline and the whole cast of the features betrayed the Polish origin. The forehead was rather low. Esther had nice teeth which accident had preserved white. It was an arrestive rather than a beautiful face, though charming enough when she smiled. If the grace and candor of childhood could have been disengaged from the face, it would have been easier to say whether it was absolutely pretty. It came nearer being so on Sabbaths and holidays when scholastic supervision was removed and the hair was free to fall loosely about the shoulders instead of being screwed up into the pendulous plait so dear to the educational eye. Esther could have earned a penny quite easily by sacrificing her tresses and going about with close-cropped head like a boy, for her teacher never failed thus to reward the shorn, but in the darkest hours of hunger she held on to her hair as her mother had done before her. The prospects of Esther's post-nuptial wig were not brilliant. She was not tall for a girl who is getting on for twelve; but some little girls shoot up suddenly and there was considerable room for hope. Sarah and Isaac were romping noisily about and under the beds; Rachel was at the table, knitting a scarf for Solomon; the grandmother pored over a bulky enchiridion for pious women, written in jargon. Moses was out in search of work. No one took any notice of the visitor. "What's that you're reading?" he asked Esther politely. "Oh nothing," said Esther with a start, closing the book as if fearful he might want to look over her shoulder. "I don't see the fun of reading books out of school," said Levi. "Oh, but we don't read school books," said Solomon defensively. "I don't care. It's stupid." "At that rate you could never read books when you're grown up," said Esther contemptuously. "No, of course not," admitted Levi. "Otherwise where would be the fun of being grown up? After I leave school I don't intend to open a book." "No? Perhaps you'll open a shop," said Solomon. "What will you do when it rains?" asked Esther crushingly. "I shall smoke," replied Levi loftily. "Yes, but suppose it's _Shabbos_," swiftly rejoined Esther. Levi was nonplussed. "Well, it can't rain all day and there are only fifty-two _Shabbosim_ in the year," he said lamely. "A man can always do something." "I think there's more pleasure in reading than in doing something," remarked Esther. "Yes, you're a girl," Levi reminded her, "and girls are expected to stay indoors. Look at my sister Hannah. She reads, too. But a man can be out doing what he pleases, eh, Solomon?"