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41 " Yes, Berel-Ayzik, what you say is all very well and good. But just tell us one more thing. Do they die in America like they do here? Or do they live forever? "
― Sholom Aleichem , Happy New Year! and Other Stories
42 " If only you’d want to study, you could make something of yourself. If not, what will become of you? Absolutely nothing. You’ll be a dog-catcher. "
43 " Basye, the tailor’s wife, butted in. She was a tiny woman, who performed three jobs at once. She rocked the baby with her foot, darned a sock with her hands, and fussed and fumed with her mouth. "
44 " Dying is the same all over. It’s death that kills them. "
45 " Pockets he wants! Let his mother send cloth for pockets and he’ll get them. There’s a fine how-do-you-do! Pockets! "
46 " What do you put into the shoes to make them squeak?” “Oh, squeaks?” said Karpe. “Sugar makes them squeak. "
47 " you have to soak the soles in vodka, otherwise the sugar won’t take. “Now I get it,” I said. “If there’s no vodka, the sugar goes to waste. And if there’s no sugar, there’s no squeak. Like the Mishna says: If there’s no food, there’s no Torah. "
48 " The third-class funeral is a shabby one and costs only a hundred dollars. The weather is cold and foggy. The coffin has no catafalque. There are two horses and two reverends. Not a carriage in sight. "
49 " But what’s the good of being boss if you don’t trust your workers? You may think differently. But I’m not asking you. "
50 " While I kept playing chess with him, his mind was elsewhere. I took his queen and he took my Rose. "
51 " What are you looking for back there?” said Mama. “Yesterday’s snow? "
52 " First she laughed, then she bawled me out and started crying. This was followed by an attack of hysteria with all the trimmings. What a conflict. "
53 " Once I give my word, I don’t care if the world comes to an end. "
54 " As he grew older, his voice became rusty and only the weeping remained—but it was the sort of weeping that could move a wall, or wake the dead. "
55 " He congratulated himself and wished himself a year of bliss. "
56 " When a wolf attacks the flock and devours a lamb, the rest of the lambs panic; they go into a momentary panic. Then they press together and begin to tremble all over. "
57 " Tsviya, the Cantor’s wife, had fainted. Looking at her, other women fainted, too. "
58 " By the time I got home, the hat had flopped over my ears. It was a bit too big, I felt. “It’s no tragedy. So long as it isn’t too tight,” said Mama, pulling the hat over my nose. “Just don’t keep taking it off and putting it on. Don’t touch it. Wear it well. "
59 " Then out of the blue there came Shapiro the Bookkeeper who didn’t play a bad game of chess and Rose fell for him. "
60 " I have neither friends nor relatives, thank goodness. I’m as lonely as a stone. "