For Bloomah was the black sheep that spoilt the chances of the fold--the black sheep with the black marks. Perhaps those great rings round her eyes were the black marks incarnate, so morbidly did the poor child grieve over her sins of omission. Yet these sins of omission were virtues of commission elsewhere; for if Bloomah's desk was vacant, it was only because Bloomah was slaving at something that her mother considered more important. 'The Beckenstein family first, the workshop second, and school nowhere,' Bloomah might have retorted on her mother. At home she was the girl-of-all-work. In the living-rooms she did cooking and washing and sweeping; in the shop above, whenever a hand fell sick or work fell heavy, she was utilized to make buttonholes, school hours or no school hours. Bloomah was likewise the errand-girl of the establishment, and the portress of goods to and from S. Cohn's Emporium in Holloway, and the watch-dog when Mrs. Beckenstein went shopping or pleasuring. 'Lock up the house!' the latter would cry, when Bloomah tearfully pleaded for that course. 'My things are much too valuable to be locked up. But I know you'd rather lose my jewellery than your precious Banner.' When Mrs. Beckenstein had new grandchildren--and they came frequently--Bloomah would be summoned in hot haste to the new scene of service. Curt post-cards came on these occasions, thus conceived: 'DEAR MOTHER, 'A son. Send Bloomah. 'BRINY.' Sometimes these messages were mournfully inverted: 'DEAR MOTHER, 'Poor little Rachie is gone. Send Bloomah to your heart-broken 'BECKY.' Occasionally the post-card went the other way: 'DEAR BECKY, 'Send back Bloomah. 'Your loving mother.' The care of her elder brother Daniel was also part of Bloomah's burden; and in the evenings she had to keep an eye on his street sports and comrades, for since he had shocked his parents by dumping down a new pair of boots on the table, he could not be trusted without supervision. Not that he had stolen the boots--far worse! Beguiled by a card cunningly printed in Hebrew, he had attended the evening classes of the _Meshummodim_, those converted Jews who try to bribe their brethren from the faith, and who are the bugbear and execration of the Ghetto. Daniel was thereafter looked upon at home as a lamb who had escaped from the lions' den, and must be the object of their vengeful pursuit, while on Bloomah devolved the duties of shepherd and sheep-dog. It was in the midst of all these diverse duties that Bloomah tried to go to school by day, and do her home lessons by night. She did not murmur against her mother, though she often pleaded. She recognised that the poor woman was similarly distracted between domestic duties and turns at the machines upstairs.