Levi was nonplussed. "Well, it can't rain all day and there are only fifty-two Shabbosim in the year," he said lamely. "A man can always do something."
"I think there's more pleasure in reading than in doing something," remarked Esther.
"Yes, you're a girl," Levi reminded her, "and girls are expected to stay indoors. Look at my sister Hannah. She reads, too. But a man can be out doing what he pleases, eh, Solomon?"
"Yes, of course we've got the best of it," said Solomon. "The
Prayer-book shows that. Don't I say every morning 'Blessed art Thou, O
Lord our God, who hast not made me a woman'?"
"I don't know whether you do say it. You certainly have got to," said
Esther witheringly.
"'Sh," said Solomon, winking in the direction of the grandmother.
"It doesn't matter," said Esther calmly. "She can't understand what I'm saying."
"I don't know," said Solomon dubiously. "She sometimes catches more than you bargain for."
"And then, you catch more than you bargain for," said Rachel, looking up roguishly from her knitting.
Solomon stuck his tongue in his cheek and grimaced.