--Sie hāt ihm far dās kēin Nägel nischt gekargt un' sein blo-un'-blo Leib flegt arauskucken vun alle Löcher vun seine verschimmelt-zurissene Klēider.... Winter, in die grösste Fröst', hāt er ihr bārwess auf'n Hōf Holz gehackt, un' die Händ' senen zu jung un' schwach gewesen, die Klötzlech zu dick, die Hack zu stumpig ... nischt ēin Māl hāt er sich die Händ' vun die Stawes ausgelenkt, nischt ēin Māl hāt er sich die Füss' ābgefrōren, nor geschwiegen hāt er afile sich var'n Vāter-- --Var'n Schiker! lacht arein der Katēgor, un' Bonzje werd kalt in alle Eewrim-- "Please, without rhetoric!" "Job did not endure, but he has been more unfortunate--" "Facts! Dry facts!" the President calls out more impatiently. "On the eighth day he was circumcised--" "Pray, without realism!" "The surgeon was a quack, and he did not stanch the blood." "Go on!" "He was always silent," the Advocate proceeds, "even when his mother died, and he got upon his thirteenth year a stepmother ... a stepmother--a snake, a witch." "Maybe he really means me?" Bontsie thinks to himself. "Leave out insinuations against third persons!" says the President, angrily. "She begrudged him every morsel.... Musty bread, three days old ... tendons for meat ... and she drank coffee with cream...." "Let's come to business!" cries the President. "And she did not spare him her finger nails, and his blue-and-black body peeped through all the holes of his musty clothes.... In winter, in the severest frosts, he chopped wood for her in his bare feet, and his hands were too young and too weak, the blocks too large, the axe too dull.... More than once he had sprained his wrists, more than once he had frozen his feet, but he was silent, and even to his father--" * * * * * "The drunkard!" the Prosecuting Attorney laughs out loud, and a shiver passes over Bontsie's body. --Nischt geklāgt,--endigt der Meeliz-jōscher dem Satz. --Un' ständig elend, führt er weiter, kēin Chawer, kēin Talmud-tōre, kēin Cheeder, kēin Schkole ... kēin ganz Beged ... kēin freie Minut-- --Fakten! ruft weiter der Präses. --Er hāt geschwiegen afile später, wenn der Vāter hāt'n schikerhēit a Māl āngechappt bei die Hāar un' in Mitten a schneewindiger Winternacht arausgeworf en van Stub'! Er hāt sich still aufgehōben vun Schnee un' is' entloffen, wu die Äugen hāben ihm getrāgen.... Auf'n ganzen Weg hāt er geschwiegen ... beim grössten Hunger hāt er nor mit die Äugen gebettelt. Erscht in a schwindeldige, nasse Wjosne-nacht is' er in a grōsse Stādt areingekummen; er is' arein wie a Troppen in a Jam un' doch hāt er die ēigene Nacht in Kose genächtigt.... Er hāt geschwiegen, nischt gefrägt far wās, far wenn? Er is' araus un' die schwerste Arbēit gesucht! Nor er hāt geschwiegen!