The Blacksmith and the Officer
[original page 23] During a week of military maneuvers our Chader class (Hebrew school) was dismissed for an afternoon-an unusual event. Outside, the loud clanging noise from the blacksmith shop aroused my curiosity, and I decided to visit the site of the noise. [The] blacksmith was at work shoeing an officer's horse. The officer was observing every movement of the blacksmith, while I, at close range, was intensely observing the blacksmith and the officer. I was admiring his ... elegant uniform, and his clean, plump, glossy horse. That horse was a striking contrast to the one owned by our Balegola (an owner of a horse and wagon for hire). His horse was lean [and] had a swayback, dirty body, and his embossed ribs were most [prominent]. After the work on the horse was completed, the officer -- in a rare instance of showing his self-importance or his generosity -- took a silver coin out of his pocket and placed it in the palm of the blacksmith's hand. It appeared to me to be a Russian silver gilden thirty-kopek coin (valued at that time at thirty cents). I knew what a gilden looked like. I had previously found one on the cobblestone street ...
It did not matter to the blacksmith what motive was behind the token gift.
He smiled with delight, for a lot could be purchased with a gilden. From his smile and financial status one could interpret his thought as, “Now, my wybelha (a [loving] expression in Yiddish referring to one's wife) can purchase soup bones with a little more meat on them for our vetcharys (evening meals) and have plenty left over for many breakfasts” (which would be eaten at room temperature). For a gilden in cash one could at that time purchase a supply of whole grains, potatoes, and other root vegetables to cook a large amount of vetchary for a week or more, [satisfying] the appetites of a half-dozen children.
