THE FACTS OF LIFE
393
Race; but there isn't any Jewish race in anthropology. Look at
me, do I look like a Jewish race?"
He looks like a highly brushed and polished moujik.
"No. Secondly: it means a Nationality. But even if some
Jews think they have a nationality, do I? I went to Jerusalem to
pick out a Gentile lamb. Anyway, I can't speak the language.
Hebrew isn't the same as Yiddish, you know, even tho it looks the
same; but I can't speak that either.
"Third: it's a Religion. So you see," he concludes tri–
umphantly, "it's not a matter of not
wanting
to be a Jew or trying
to
hide
that you're a Jew, but you
can't
be a Jew if you're
not
a Jew!''"
"Don't be a fool," says Marcia. "A person's a Jew if
his grandparents were Jews; even one's enough sometimes,
depending."
"What sense does that make?"
"Do you think it's by accident,". says Martha flatly, "that your
mama and papa came to marry Jews and we married Jews?"
She means, thinks Ronnie, when our desire is toward Gen–
tiles, toward retrousse noses and moon-face Hungarians. Does she
mean Rosina? She means Bernie. We mean-but there is no
time to think of that.
"I'll ask Louis," says Ronnie; for tho he holds sway at the
luncheon club, all his ideas come from this poet.
"He's taking Marshy to the Picassos tomorrow."
"Let him tell her, then."
"What! are going to let your daughter find out the facts from
a stranger?"
Having slept over it all night, by morning the little girl has
contrived the following working theory:
In the beginning, of course, all babies are alike. Her deep–
seated conviction on this point has never been in the least shaken
by Momsy's anecdotes about the chickens, for it is plain to observe
that all babies are alike. (Nor is this the chief reason for her con–
viction.) But then comes the moment when the thing is cut off the
girls. When this takes place, is not yet clear; but it is planned
from the beginning, because you can tell by the names; altho
sometimes even there is a change of names; with some names you
