The Stranger
Mordcha
I saw that I couldn’t make the town anyway today, so I unharnessed the horse and rode home. I thought to myself—I left her at home all alone and the little one isn’t altogether well either…Nu—praised be God, I find a full house of our own people. Where do you hail from?
The Old Man
We are not close neighbors. We come from quite a distance.
Mordcha
That is easy to see. I am living here now nearly twenty years in these parts, and yet you are, somehow, not familiar to me.
The Old Man
It isn’t just convenient to travel by this road.
Mordcha
But the bobbe’she is, somehow, a little familiar to me.
The Old Woman
A Jewish face, what?
Mordcha
Perhaps you would prepare something for our guests to eat, my daughter?
Fraidele
I put potatoes into the oven already.
The Old Man
I understand her mother is dead.
Mordcha
The light has gone from the house!
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