"Heaven be praised, I have no money. Neither I, nor any one of the Jews standing here, nor any other Jews—except perhaps the 'German' ones[90] in the big towns. We have no money. I don't know any trade, my grandfather never sewed a shoe. Therefore I live as God wills, and have lived so for fifty years. And if there is a child to be married, we have a wedding, and dance in the mud."
"Once and for all, what are you?"
"A Jew."
"I study, I pray—what else should a Jew do? And when I have eaten, I go to the market."
"What do you do in the market?"
"What do I do? Whatever turns up. Well, yesterday, for example, I heard, as I passed, that Yoneh Borik wanted to buy three rams for a gentleman. Before daylight I was at the house of a second gentleman, who had once said, he had too many rams. I made an agreement with Yoneh Borik, and, heaven be praised, we made a ruble and a half by it."
"Are you, then, what is called a commission-agent?"
"How should I know? Sometimes it even occurs to me to buy a bit of produce."
"Sometimes?"