36 ALTER BRODY
��I am in the market-place -^
At a Fair ;
The market-place is a heaving mass of carts and
horses and oxen ; The oxen are lowing, the horses are neighing, the
peasants are cursing in a dozen different dia- lects — I am in Grandfather's store, On the lower end of the market-place, right opposite
the public well — The store is full of peasants and peasant women,
bargaining at the top of their voices ; The men are clad in rough sheepskin coats and fur
caps; The women are gay in bright-colored cottons and
wear red kerchiefs around their heads ; My Grandfather is standing behind the counter
measuring out rope to some peasants; Grandmother is cutting a strip of linen for a peasant
woman, chaffering with another one at the same
time, about the price of a pair of sandals — And I am sitting there, behind the counter, on a
sack of flour. Playing with my black-eyed little cousin —
Kartushkiya-Beroza ! Kartushkiva-Beroza ! It comes back to me suddenly —
�� �
