The family lived in a few rooms off Commercial Road, in one of the many
back streets. The underground kitchen had to be used as the dining-and
sitting-room, for they had not been many years in England and it was a
hard struggle for Benjamin's parents to make ends meet and provide for a
large family.
The father and the elder boys were dressing as best they could in this
room. Just then the mother came in, very excited, and said to her
husband: "What will you say to this? I gave Benjamin his Sabbath clothes
and a clean tsitsith, and what do you think he did?"
"What?" asked the father, and stopped brushing his clothes.
"Why, he took the tsitsith and threw it on the floor, and said he would
never wear it again. I punished him, and told him to put it on again. So
you had better go to him and give him what he deserves."
"You are rather hasty, my dear wife," said the father; "for, before
punishing him, you should have asked him why he did such a thing."
"What!" exclaimed the mother, "do you think I have nothing else to do
but to stand and argue with him just before Sabbath, when I have so much
work? You are far too easy-going, Jacob--you should really be firmer
with the children."
"No, no!" said Jacob, who was a kindly man and understood human nature
better than his hasty, but well-meaning and loving, wife. The struggle
and constant hard work in keeping the home of a large family was telling
upon her, and any disobedience in the children irritated her very much.
"We must not be hasty with the children," continued Jacob, "especially
now-a-days, for they live under different circumstances from those we
knew when we were young. Instead of hastily scolding and punishing them,
let us rather quietly reason with them, when possible, and show them
where they are wrong."
"Perhaps you may be right," said Benjamin's mother; "so let us leave the
matter till you return from Shule and have had our Sabbath meal--then
you can quietly ask Benjamin why he acted as he did."