CHAPTER X.
A SILENT FAMILY.
Sugarman the _Shadchan_ arrived one evening a few days before Purim at the tiny two-storied house in which Esther's teacher lived, with little Nehemiah tucked under his arm.

Nehemiah wore shoes and short red socks.
The rest of his legs was bare.

Sugarman always carried him so as to demonstrate this fact.

Sugarman himself was rigged out in a handsome manner, and the day not being holy, his blue bandanna peeped out from his left coat-tail, instead of being tied round his trouser band.
"Good morning, marm," he said cheerfully.
"Good morning, Sugarman," said Mrs.Hyams.
She was a little careworn old woman of sixty with white hair.

Had she been more pious her hair would never have turned gray.