A Struggle for Existence
( Translated from the Yiddish by M. S. Mandell )
The same day Chyene gave birth to a dead child.
Shmuel, wondering where they could be, having found no one at home, had run the streets for two hours, and finally meeting the driver asked where they could be. He learned that they were taken to the hospital. Shmuel reached there as quickly as his feet could carry hım.
"I want to see my daughter. Let me go in,—two of my daughters are here."
"Oh, it was your daughter that—"
"Let me go in."
"You can't go in. Your daughter has given birth to a child and you cannot be admitted, but I can call your other daughter," said the attendant, kindly, noticing that Shmuel's face grew paler, and he called Leah.
"Is it true that Chyene has lost her virtue? Were they really right ? Did my girl give birth to an illegitimate child! Oh, good God, why do you punish me so heavily!" Shmuel cried, in his bewilderment.
He would have fallen to the floor had not Leah come to his rescue. She put her strong young hands under his arms and tenderly helped him home. "An illegitimate child! An illegitimate child! She has brought shame upon me. My daughter—" he was murmuring all the way home.
The news traveled with great rapidity.Some people said that the child was bornin the place she had been working, and
that the police had removed her and the child to the hospital; other gossips said that she killed her child and the police had taken her to the hospital with the intention of keeping her there until strong enough to go through a trial, and that she, no doubt, would be found guilty and sentenced to prison. No one had a word of pity nor a word of sympathy for her, although a few days before, she apparently had a great many friends.
"There you are, one of the quiet ones!" said one woman. "I would have expected anything of her but this."
"Still water runs deep," said another woman.
"I heard," said a third woman, "that her sister Leah carried her to the hospital in her own arms."
"Who else would have done that?" asked the first speaker, "perhaps she is no better than Chyene."
The shower of abuse did not affect Leah.
As formerly, she met everyone with the same pride, except her father. The first day Shmuel acted as if he were insane. He tore his hair out of his head, cried and cursed, but Leah paid no attention to it. On the second, after he had calmed down somewhat, she began to talk to him, to convince him that her sister was not to be so severely blamed. She made him understand under what impulse Chyene had done as she did. The young girl spoke with much earnestness and fervor, and tried to convince