WHAT THE SNOWFLAKE TOLD 101 THE CITY'S HEART 108 CHIPS FROM THE MAELSTROM 122 HEARTSEASE 139 HIS CHRISTMAS GIFT 147 OUR ROOF GARDEN AMONG THE TENEMENTS 157 THE SNOW BABIES' CHRISTMAS 168 AS TOLD BY THE RABBI 198 THE STRAND FROM ABOVE 205 ILLUSTRATIONS "Little Louisa's fingers were nimbler than her mother's. She was only eight, but she soon learned to tie a plume" _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE "He tied his feet together with the prayer shawl, and looked once upon the rising sun" 9 "There he stood, indifferent, bored if anything, shiftless" 64 "If Kate sees it, she steals up behind her, and, putting two affectionate arms around her neck, whispers in her ear, 'I love oo, Grannie'" 80 "When we had set up a Christmas tree together, to the wild delight of the children" 95 "Please, your Honor, let this man go! It is Christmas" 153 NEIGHBORS THE ANSWER OF LUDLOW STREET "You get the money, or out you go! I ain't in the business for me health," and the bang of the door and the angry clatter of the landlord's boots on the stairs, as he went down, bore witness that he meant what he said. Judah Kapelowitz and his wife sat and looked silently at the little dark room when the last note of his voice had died away in the hall. They knew it well enough--it was their last day of grace. They were two months behind with the rent, and where it was to come from neither of them knew. Six years of struggling in the Promised Land, and this was what it had brought them. A hungry little cry roused the woman from her apathy. She went over and took the baby and put it mechanically to her poor breast. Holding it so, she sat by the window and looked out upon the gray November day. Her husband had not stirred. Each avoided the question in the other's eyes, for neither had an answer.