The Seven-Branched Candlestick: The Schooldays of Young American Jew

at any moment disclose it to the rest of my classmates and make me the subject of their taunts. No doubt, they all knew as well as he that I was a Jew-but, for the most part, they paid littl

's sneers and warnings, and my own perverted pride, I always felt more comfortable with them-more as if, in walking home with one of them after school, instead of with som

d me continuously. I remember distinctly dreaming of him once or twice at night-and that he stood over my bedside, in th

Mine was always an elaborate package of dainties, wrapped in much tissue paper and doilies. Geoghen, on the other hand, had

he asked wi

rds my mouth, his dirty fingers striking my teeth. I jumped away f

ite me, eh?

s crutch, dealt me a stinging blow with the small

i's manner invited the twitting, perhaps: his pale, thin face bore always a nettled look, his eyes seemed ever hungry with some dark sorrow, and

rests or of how Cleopatra came with purple sails-or of how Cleopatra came to meet Mark Antony in a golden barge with purple sails-then his face would light up with a look that was

the handicap of his religion-to know that the Irish boys of the class, and dark, sullen-faced Italians, were t

th is always a rebellious one. The spring weather, the sens

up to the dais and opened the teacher's desk. This bit of boldness drew a crowd of laughing boys to the fro

which lay sprawled with its pages open. There was

which they had found, w

an to march around the room, making believe to sing a heathenish jargon which he must have thought to resemble Hebrew, twisting his fac

nly Mr. Le

his hands. Geoghen reached for it, as if loath to let go of so much

marble. The eyes flashed with a noble fury. The mouth had stopped its twitching and was drawn taut, and his teeth sho

of profanity began to come from his mouth. I don't think any of us had ever heard such talk before. All the obscene th

ok of mild reproach taking the place of the anger in his eyes. He let Geoghen have his miserab

arged it, exaggerated it-and Geoghen's father who, it seems, was a political vassal of the alderman of

efend himself. He merely explained that he had caught this boy defiling the traditions of the Jewish faith, mocking what was most sacred to him,

that he was incompetent, and Mr. Levi-his face paler than ever, his manner more mild and sadd

Geoghen from doing what he did-and my conscience made a coward of me. I had a foolish idea, besides, that he did not like me. Any man who cared so much for his r

fair, of course, and she

y must be!" she sighed. "And worst

there, but my aunt had managed to have me placed on the roll-call somehow. I was glad enough

on Sundays, grew brown and muscle-bound and manly. Such teasing as I had from them was good-natured, and I suppose I should have taken it in the same spirit.

his time my aunt had been as much aroused as she could be to the baffling condition of my mind and spirits. I had by n

e the synagogue, I had some dim conception o

cond time. He insisted that I must be sent away. Perhaps

she made a feverish study of monogrammed and photogravured catalogues from various schools in the East. It was upon a military school on the upper Huds

deal of splendid uniforms, of flags unfurled to the sunse