She was remembering past happy days.
She also had known what it is to enjoy life, when her husband was in health, and they had a few hundred rubles. They finished boarding with her parents, they set up a shop, and though he had always been a close frequenter of the house-of-study, a bench-lover, he soon learnt the Torah of commerce. She helped him, and they made a livelihood, and ate their bread in honor. But in course of time some quite new shops were started in the little town, there was great competition, the trade was small, and the gains were smaller, it became necessary to borrow money on interest, on weekly payment, and to pay for goods at once. The interest gradually ate up the capital with the gains. The creditors took what they could lay hands on, and still her husband remained in their debt.
He could not get over this, and fell ill.
The whole bundle of trouble fell upon her: the burden of a livelihood, the children, the sick man, everything, everything, on her.
"God will help, he will soon get well, and will surely find some work. God will not desert us," so she reflected, and meantime she was not sitting idle.
The very difficulty of her position roused her courage, and gave her strength.
She sold her small store of jewelry, and set up a little shop.
Three years have passed since then.
However it may be, God has not abandoned her, and however bitter and sour the struggle for Parnosseh may have been, she had her bit of bread. Only his health did not return, he grew daily weaker and worse.