"They imagine I can't get on without them. Listen, Getzel, what game are we playing?"
"I don't know. Whatever game you like."
"Then let us play 'odd or even.'"
"I'm quite willing."
He shook his cap.
"Now, guess. Odd or even? Well, speak out," he said to himself. He dug his elbow into his own ribs, and said to himself:
"Even."
"Even did you say? Who'll thrash you? You have lost. Hand over three nuts."
He took three nuts from his left-hand pocket, and put them into the right. Again he shook the cap, and again he asked:
"Odd or even this time?"
"Odd."
"Did you say odd? May you suffer for ever! Hand them over here. You have lost four nuts."
He changed four nuts from his left-hand pocket to the right, shook the cap and said again:
"Well, maybe you'll guess right now. Odd or even?"
"Even."
"Even did you say? May your bones rot! You rascal, hand out here five nuts."
"Isn't it enough that I lose. Why do you curse me?"
"Whose fault is it that you are a fool and that you guess as a blind man guesses a hole? Well, say again—odd or even? This time you must be right."
"Even."
"Even? May you live long! Hand out seven nuts, you fool, and guess again. Odd or even?"
"Even."
"Again even. May you be my father! Good-for-nothing, hand over five more nuts, and guess again. Maybe you will guess right for once. Odd or even? Why are you silent—eh?"
"I have no more nuts."
"It's a lie, you have!"
"As I am a Jew, I haven't."
"Just look in your pocket, like this."
"There isn't even a sign of one."
"None? Lost all the nuts? Well, what good has it done you? Aren't you a fool?"
"Enough! You have won all my nuts, and now you torment me."
"It's good, it's all right. You wanted to win all my nuts, and I have won yours."
Goyetzel was well satisfied that Getzel had lost, whilst he, Goyetzel had won. He felt it was doing him good to win. He felt equal to winning all the nuts in the whole world. "Where are they now, the 'Cheder' boys? I would have got my own back from them. I would not have left them the smallest nut, not even for a cure. They would have died here on the ground in front of me."
Getzel grew angry, fierce. He closed his fists, clenched his teeth, and spoke to himself, just as if there was some one beside him.
"Well, try now. Now that I am not by myself. Now that there are two of us. Well, Getzel, why are you sitting there like a bridegroom? Let's play nuts another little while."
"Nuts? Where have I nuts? Didn't I tell you I haven't a single one?"
"Ah, I forgot that you have no more nuts. Do you know what I would advise you, Getzel?"
"For instance?"
"Have you any money?"
"I have. Well, what of that?"
"Buy nuts from me."
"What do you mean by saying I should buy nuts off you?"
"Fool! Don't you know what buying means? Give me money, and I'll give you nuts. Eh?"
"Well, I agree to that."
He took from his purse a silver coin, bargained about the price, counted a score of nuts from the right-hand pocket to the left, and the play began all over again.
An experienced card-player, the story goes, half an hour before his death called his son—also a gambler—to his bedside, and said to him:
"My child, I am going from this world. We shall never meet again. I know you play cards. You have my nature. You may play as much as you like, only take care not to play yourself out."
These words are almost a law. There is nothing worse in the world than playing yourself out. Experienced people say it deprives a man even of his last shirt. It drives a man to desperate acts. And one cannot hope to rise at the Resurrection after that. So people say. And so it happened with our young man. He worked so long, shaking his cap, "odd or even," taking from one pocket and putting into the other, until his left-hand pocket hadn't a single nut in it.
"Well, why don't you play?"
"I have nothing to play with."
"Again you have no nuts, good-for-nothing!"
"You say I am a good-for-nothing. And I say you are a cheat."
"If you call me a cheat again, I will give you a clout in the jaw."
"Let the Lord put it into your head."
Getzel sat quiet for a few minutes, scraping the ground with his fingers, digging a hole, and muttering a song under his breath. Then he said:
"Dirty thing, let us play nuts."
"Where have I nuts?"
"Haven't you money? I will sell you another ten."
"Money? Where have I money?"
"No money and no nuts? Oh, I can't stand it. Ha! ha! ha!"
The laugh echoed over the whole field, and re-echoed in the distant wood. Getzel was convulsed with laughter.
"What are you laughing at, you Goyetzel you?" he asked himself. And he answered himself in a different voice:
"I am laughing at you, good-for-nothing. Isn't it enough that you lost all my nuts on me? Why did you want to go and lose my money as well? Such a lot of money. You fool of fools! Oh, I can't get over it. Ha! ha! ha!"
"You yourself brought me to it. You wicked one of wicked ones! You scamp! You rascal!"
"Fool of the night! If I were to tell you to cut off your nose, must you do it? You idiot! You animal with the horse's face, you! Ha! ha! ha!"
"Be quiet, at any rate, you Goyetzel, you. And let me not see your forbidding countenance."
And he turned away from himself, sat sulky for a few minutes, scraping the earth with his fingers. He covered the hole he had made, as he sang a little song under his breath.
"Do you know what I will tell you, Getzel?" he said to himself a few minutes later. "Let us forgive one another. Let us be friends. The Lord helped me. It was my luck to win so many nuts—may no evil eye harm them! Why should we not enjoy ourselves? Let's crack a few nuts. I should think they are not bad! Well, what do you say, Getzel?"
"Yes, I also think they ought not to be bad," he answered himself. He thrust a nut into his mouth, a second, a third. Each time, he banged his teeth with his fists. The nut was cracked. He took out a fat kernel, cleaned it round, threw it back in his mouth, and chewed it pleasurably with his strong white teeth. He crunched them as a horse crunches oats. He said to himself:
"Would you also like the kernel of a nut, Getzel? Speak out. Do not be ashamed."
"Why not?"
That was how he answered himself. He stretched out his left hand, but only smacked it with his right.
"Will you have a plague?"
"Let it be a plague."
"Then