I.
L.
PERETZ
416
personal responsibilities...if, at least, one had a prop to one's in–
come!
* * *
The driver interrupted my ruminations on income by
several sharp tugs on the reins. I did not get down from the
coach. It became a bit warmer; the sun began to show that she is
not ungenerous.
Another passenger joined me in the coach, and in the
morning light, I could see him clearly. I even recognized him.
He was an old acquaintance of mine ...As children we used to
slide on the ice together and often played at making mud-pies;
we were almost best friends ...Mterwards, I went to the dark and
grimy boys' school, the Cheder, and he went to the light and
emancipated Gymnasium.
When I didn't know the lesson I was whipped; when I re–
vealed a particularly good grasp of the basic questions with which
the commentators dealt, I received a pinch on the cheek. One
was as painful as the other. Sometimes he received the highest
grades; at other times he was locked up for punishment. I broke
my head over talmudic legal problems, and he broke his teeth on
Greek and Latin. All this time we remained inseparable. We
were neighbors. Secretly he taught me to read languages other
than Hebrew, and he lent me books.
As
adolescents, lying on the
grass by the river, we made plans to change the world. I
intended to invent a powder which could be shot over a great
distance , as much as a hundred miles; he , a balloon which could
fly to the stars, so that we could introduce order there, too. We felt
great pity for the wretched world, which had somehow got stuck
in the mire -how were we to drag it out? A wagon with
ungreased wheels, with lazy horses, and the driver asleep!
Mterwards, I got married and he left for the university. We
didn't correspond. I heard that something went wrong; his plan
to become a doctor never materialized and he became a druggist
instead, somewhere in a small town...
As
he entered the coach I almost shouted for joy; my heart
warmed with pleasure, my hands reached out to him, my whole
