Didactic fiction; Political fiction; Social problems -- Fiction
Every night in the week you would have found Benjamin Rayefsky and his
little daughter Yetta perched on high stools back of the desk to the
left of the door. He would have greeted you with his sad, wistful smile,
and would have gotten down to shake hands with you. It would have
surprised and hurt him if you had asked at once for a book, paid for it,
and gone out. It was customary to take plenty of time and to make quite
sure that he did not have in stock some book you would prefer to the one
you had come after.
When he had succeeded in making you feel at home, he would have returned
to his desk, and Yetta would have gone on reading aloud to him. Very
likely you would have wanted to laugh at the discussions they had over
how various English words should be pronounced. When they could not
agree, Benjamin would write down the word on a slip of paper for Yetta
to take to school in the morning and submit to the teacher. You would
have wondered with amusement how much the little lassie understood of
the ponderous tomes she read in her high-pitched uncertain voice.
But you would not have wanted to laugh at the memory you carried away of
the couple. More than one Gentile who had dropped into the store by
chance went away racking their brains to recall the Holy Picture the
Rayefskys suggested. It was what the psychologists call "inverse
association." The Father and Daughter inevitably called to mind the
Mother and Son.
Benjamin resembled--except for an ugly scar on his forehead--Guido
Reni's "Christ." There was the same poignant sadness about his mouth,
the same soft beard and sensitive nose; there was the same otherworldly
kindliness in his eyes and his every gesture. And little Yetta was very
like the Child Mary in Titian's "Presentation."
Towards nine o'clock the little shop began to fill up. First of the
regulars was a consumptive lad whose attention had been caught by an
advertisement asserting that a certain encyclopædia was worth a
university education. Lacking money to go to college or to acquire so
large a set of books, he was reading one of these compendiums in
Rayefsky's Book-store. He had reached the letter "R," and considered
himself a junior. There were others who came for regular reading, but
more came to talk--and to listen to Benjamin. At ten he would close
Yetta's book and, putting his arm about her shoulders, begin his evening
discourse. Generally his text was some phrase from his reading which had
impressed him during the day. Before long the little girl's eyes would
close and her head fall over on her father's shoulder.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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