The Melting-Pot Part 10

"Flag of our Great Republic, guardian of our homes, whose stars and stripes stand for Bravery, Purity, Truth, and Union, we salute thee. We, the natives of distant lands, who find [_Half-sobbing_]

rest under thy folds, do pledge our hearts, our lives, our sacred honour to love and protect thee, our Country, and the liberty of the American people for ever."

[_He ends almost hysterically._]

MENDEL [_Soothingly_]

Quite right. But you needn't get so excited over it.

DAVID Not when one hears the roaring of the fires of G.o.d? Not when one sees the souls melting in the Crucible? Uncle, all those little Jews will grow up Americans!

MENDEL [_Putting a pacifying hand on his shoulder and forcing him into a chair_]

Sit down. I want to talk to you about your affairs.

DAVID [_Sitting_]

_My_ affairs! But I've been talking about them all the time!

MENDEL Nonsense, David.

[_He sits beside him._]

Don't you think it's time you got into a wider world?

DAVID Eh? This planet's wide enough for me.

MENDEL Do be serious. You don't want to live all your life in this room.

DAVID [_Looks round_]

What's the matter with this room? It's princely.

MENDEL [_Raising his hands in horror_]

Princely!

DAVID Imperial. Remember when I first saw it--after pigging a week in the rocking steerage, swinging in a berth as wide as my fiddle-case, hung near the cooking-engines; imagine the hot rancid smell of the food, the oil of the machinery, the odours of all that close-packed, sea-sick----

MENDEL [_Putting his hand over DAVID'S mouth_]

Don't! You make me ill! How could you ever bear it?

DAVID [_Smiling_]

I was quite happy--I only had to fancy I'd been s.h.i.+pwrecked, and that after clinging to a plank five days without food or water on the great lonely Atlantic, my frozen, sodden form had been picked up by this great safe steamer and given this delightful dry berth, regular meals, and the spectacle of all these friendly faces.... Do you know who was on board that boat? Quincy Davenport.

MENDEL The lord of corn and oil?

DAVID [_Smiling_]

Yes, even we wretches in the steerage felt safe to think the lord was up above, we believed the company would never dare drown _him_. But could even Quincy Davenport command a cabin like this?

[_Waving his arm round the room._]

Why, uncle, we have a cabin worth a thousand dollars--a thousand dollars a _week_--and what's more, it doesn't wobble!

[_He plants his feet voluptuously upon the floor._]

MENDEL Come, come, David, I asked you to be serious. Surely, some day you'd like your music produced?

DAVID [_Jumps up_]

Wouldn't it be glorious? To hear it all actually coming out of violins and 'cellos, drums and trumpets.

MENDEL And you'd like it to go all over the world?

DAVID All over the world and all down the ages.

MENDEL But don't you see that unless you go and study seriously in Germany----?

[_Enter KATHLEEN from kitchen, carrying a furnished tea-tray with ear-shaped cakes, bread and b.u.t.ter, etc., and wearing a grotesque false nose. MENDEL cries out in amaze._]

Kathleen!

DAVID [_Roaring with boyish laughter_]

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

KATHLEEN [_Standing still with her tray_]

Sure, what's the matter?

DAVID Look in the gla.s.s!

KATHLEEN [_Going to the mantel_]

Houly Moses!

[_She drops the tray, which MENDEL catches, and s.n.a.t.c.hes off the nose._]

Och, I forgot to take it off--'twas the misthress gave it me--I put it on to cheer her up.

DAVID Is she so miserable, then?

KATHLEEN Terrible low, Mr. David, to-day being _Purim_.

MENDEL _Purim!_ Is to-day _Purim_?

[_Gives her the tea-tray back. KATHLEEN, to take it, drops her nose and forgets to pick it up._]

DAVID But _Purim_ is a merry time, Kathleen, like your Carnival. Haven't you read the book of Esther--how the Jews of Persia escaped ma.s.sacre?

KATHLEEN That's what the misthress is so miserable about. Ye don't _keep_ the Carnival. There's noses for both of ye in the kitchen--didn't I go with her to Hester Street to buy 'em?--but ye don't be axin' for 'em. And to see your noses layin' around so solemn and neglected, faith, it nearly makes me chry meself.

MENDEL [_Bitterly to himself_]

Who can remember about _Purim_ in America?

DAVID [_Half-smiling_]

Poor granny, tell her to come in and I'll play her _Purim_ jig.

MENDEL [_Hastily_]

No, no, David, not here--the visitors!

DAVID Visitors? What visitors?

MENDEL [_Impatiently_]

That's just what I've been trying to explain.

DAVID Well, I can play in the kitchen.

[_He takes his violin. Exit to kitchen. MENDEL sighs and shrugs his shoulders hopelessly at the boy's perversity, then fingers the cups and saucers._]

MENDEL [_Anxiously_]