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106 | Pioneers 3. Another diminutive form of her name. 4. A quotation from the opening of the Shofarot section of the service for blowing the shofar (ram’s horn) on Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year): “Thou didst reveal Thyself in a cloud of glory unto Thy holy people.” “Do you know what?” Beryasheva managed to reply. “Persuade your mother to leave for home today. She’ll listen to you. After all, you’re a Cossack! Really, Tsipenka,3 do it!” “What do you think—I’ll do just that! We’ll leave for home today so that my uncle can’t say a thing. . . . You’ll have to manage all alone. . . .” When the girls had gone, Mirkin and Faevich exchanged glances with an expression of sublime ecstasy. “Ah! What do you say? The world’s still turning, eh? It’s still worth living, right?” Mirkin asked triumphantly. “What a girl! What a human being!” Faevich shouted fervently. “I never imagined she’d be so courageous, so sensible. . . . Just like a man! I swear it!” “Yes-s-s, a new life is beginning, a new one!” Mirkin said dreamily and, as if coming to his senses, added hastily, in a business-like tone of voice, “I’ll run off to see Eizerman. Then . . . somewhere else,” he added in a lowered voice, and a shadow flitted across his face. He left quickly. Faevich continued to pace the room for a long time, repeating to himself, “An astonishing person! Just like a man.” And without even noticing it, he sang in a low voice the triumphant refrain from the prayer Ato-nigleyto:4 “I go along the dark street. I hear a horn on a cloudy day. . . .” 34 After settling into his own apartment, Eizerman threw himself into his studies with gusto. He worked the first day without a break from morning until late at night, forgetting all about food and rest. During that day his attitude to Kapluner’s method of instruction changed significantly. Unexpectedly he found the lessons Kapluner had assigned held great interest for him and possessed their own kind of fascination. The task of retelling the story of “Grateful Vanya” in his Pioneers | 107 1. An ancient prayer recited in early December: “And grant dew and rain as a blessing.” own words in Russian captivated Eizerman by its enormous difficulty; while composing “Russian sentences” with great effort, which, of course, were neither “Russian ” nor “sentences,” he kept repeating to himself, “Fine! Splendid!” “When one manages to do something especially hard, one develops ‘a taste for learning.’ So what if Kapluner doesn’t allow me to utter a word in Yiddish! So what if my tongue gets twisted pronouncing such difficult sounds as tsiz. Let it! The harder it is, the better, the more interesting, and the more useful.” The next day, in a cheerful and self-confident frame of mind, Eizerman set off to his lesson with Kapluner. Feeling a surge of energy, he advanced boldly to his decisive battle with Russian grammar like a brave soldier and was confident of victory. In Kapluner’s room, Eizerman found not only his young teacher but also his father, an older man with a paunch, a rounded, trimmed beard, wearing goldrimmed glasses. He stood next to the wall with one hand behind his back, holding a fat cigar in the other. His son, the younger Kapluner, was sitting at the table, his head bowed, listening to his father’s words, doodling dreamily with a pencil on a piece of paper. When Eizerman entered the room, the elder Kapluner was saying in a decisive and insistent tone of voice, “Nevertheless, I repeat, it’s essential to maintain ‘decorum.’” Upon seeing Eizerman come in, he asked, “Is this your new pupil?” “Yes!” replied his son, raising his head, as if awakened. Standing up from his place at the table, he added firmly, “I’m going to work with him now.” “Never mind; he can wait a little,” his father replied; an expression appeared on his face as if he’d just tasted some nasty tobacco. “Sit down!” he said, addressing Eizerman. A shadow of dissatisfaction flitted across young Kapluner’s face, but he held his tongue and asked unwillingly, “I don’t understand what you’re referring to as ‘decorum.’ To go to synagogue every morning—is that ‘decorum’ in your opinion?” “No one’s forcing you to go to synagogue every day,” his father replied in discontent. “You know I don’t...

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