BENJAMIN OF BRESLAU,

AND HOW HE LEARNT THE WORLD.

A GERMAN TALE.

SOME years under a century since a keen old Israelite, bearing the name of Abraham Aarons, kept an old clothes' shop in Breslau, the capital of Silesia. He had an only son, named Benjamin, and our story commences on the morning of the day which was fixed upon by his father to send him to seek his fortune, as his ancestors had from time immemorial, as a peripatetic merchant, vulgo, a pedlar. Abraham was rich; but, consistent with the character of his creed, the wealth he had amassed he kept with such tenacity that parting with a guilder was like the loss of life-blood from his heart, so it need not be considered wonderful that the following dialogue occurred between parent and son previous to the departure of the latter. "Fater," said Benjamin, "vat is ten tolers? vat for can I make fortune vit tem-noting!"

"Vot you say?" said his father,

made out of noting."

"noting? vas not everyting

"Ah! ven dat vas tings must have been very sheap." "Haven't I given you a bag of false guilders?"

"Yes! but who'll take tem? If my fater had given me a hundred-fifty-twenty tolers?"

“Vould you scatter de thrift of your elders, you vortless boy?— Vould you give back to te Gentiles te golt vich I have taken from tem? Go find your inheritance from the rich Christians, as your faters did. Get dere golt and dere jewels; make de bargains and de bushinez, and prove yourself of de true seed of Israel, and ven you die de Lord Abraham vill say you have done goot in de vorld, and de blessing of Jacob will be on you."

"Fater," said Benjamin, "yer expound de true doctrine; your vords are de bright comet vich shall light me on my vay. As Fater Abraham shall help me, I vill be of de true seed."

"You svear! May de curse be on you if you svear false." "I vill die a tousand deaths-I vill."

"You are my good sone!" said Abraham affectionately.

Fater," said Benjamin, apparently affected.

"Vat have you to say, my sone?"

My best of parents, give me ten tolers more."

"Ten tolers! dog!" said Abraham, with indignation. "Vot have you schworn?"

"Give me ten tolers, or I am a dog if I keep my oath,” said Benjamin determinedly.

"Ach!" groaned his father, "vot shall I do? it is my sone, te blood of my blood. Vell, I'll give you five tolers in paper, and my blessing, by way of interest."

"Ten tolers, and keep de blessing," said Benjamin.

"He is de true seed of Israel," thought his father, between a sigh and a smile, as he reluctantly counted out the money to Benjamin, and giving him a parting embrace, and a repetition of his paternal

injunction to levy tribute on the Gentiles, and never to come back until he was a hundred times richer, the latter journeyed forth with the world, as ancient Pistol has it, "his oyster" before him "to open."

Before he left his native place, however, Benjamin had an object to accomplish dear to his heart, namely, if possible, to seek, for the last time, the chance of a smile from Rachel, the daughter of the Jew banker, Solomon Levi She was as proud as her father was rich; but Benjamin was vain enough to aspire to her hand; he loved her, and perhaps her money. His first movement, therefore, was to bend his steps in the direction of the house of a poor, but good-looking Jew music-master, David Meyer, where she was wont to take her lessons. Just as he had turned the corner of the street into the square immediately opposite to Moses Guilders wetz's, the lotterycontractor, a tall, thin personage, so totally enveloped in a long black cloak that only a pair of piercing dark eyes could be seen peering out from under a low-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, stood before him, and looked in his face with an earnest gaze. Benjamin stared at him, and was about to pass, when the stranger tapped him on the shoulder, saying in a low, hollow, and mysterious tone,

"Benjamin Aarons, I know your object, and will be your friend. You are sent from home to learn the world, and get wealth. Stay here, in this very spot, for one hour, and you will receive a lesson in the ways of the world you will never forget. Agree to my terms, and gold shall be yours in profusion, with little toil."

"Gott's wonder!" cried Benjamin, looking with surprise at his strange friend.

"Peace!" hastily said the man in the cloak; "speak not thus, or your fortune's lost. We meet again. See! here she comes whom you seek," and he vanished round the corner.

Benjamin, bewildered that any one should know so much of his business and his feelings, turned his eyes in the direction the stranger pointed, and, true enough, there he saw Rachel Levi coming across the square, in company with David Meyer. Benjamin heartily wished the composer at the bottom of the Oder; but the opportunity of speaking even for the last time to the charming Rachel, though she scorned him, was too lucky to be lost. We have said Benjamin was vain; so, setting himself jauntily up, he made his best obeisance, which she haughtily and silently returned.

"Vot," said Benjamin, mortified, and following her, "von't you speak to your old acquaintance?"

"Old acquaintance!" said the proud maiden,-" a proper acquaintance for me, isn't he, David?"

"Did you ever see him before?" said the composer coolly.

"I should hope not," was the reply.

"Vot?" said Benjamin, overcome with astonishment,

"how?

not seen me? not seen Abraham Aaron's little Benjamin, your playfellow at Rebecca Emanuel's? Come," said he, soothingly, and taking her hand. "You vast alvays my leetle vife in our pretty games, you know," and he raised her hand to his lips.

"Your vife!" she indignantly exclaimed. "Dis is too much; leave me dis instant, or I vill tell my fater, a rich man, to give you to te police?" and taking the arm of the composer, who gave Ben

jamin a fierce look, which the latter returned by shaking his fist, she hurried away.

"She's gone!" groaned Benjamin, "and I have no hope," and he leant pensively against a post, when who should pass close to him, a few minutes after the interview, but Rachel's father.

Now it so happened that Mr. Solomon Levi, who wanted to fill a vacancy in his household, was on his way to Abraham Aaron's, to speak about Benjamin.

"Ha!" said he, on seeing the latter; "here is the very lad I want."

"I shall never see her more," said Benjamin, " till —”

"As though sent by heaven," continued the banker, "for-" "Te tay of wrath, tat treadful tay!" dolefully said or sung Benjamin.

"I'll take him and treat him generously," said Mr. Levi.

"Ven heaven and earth shall pass avay," again dolefully whined Benjamin.

"How, Benjamin ?" said Mr. Levi. "Did you hear me? For vat are you croaking here?"

"Mr. Levi!" said Benjamin, surprised.

"Have you noting better to do in de vorlt tan howling against a post in de shtreet, eh?"

Now Benjamin, we have just said, was vain; and he thought, with the quickness and shrewdness of his race, to give himself a good character in the eyes of the banker, so he boldly said, "I am a diletantte, Mr. Levi, and vas trying de Requiem of Mozart!"

"Oh! you sing; you are musician, too?" said Levi.

"I strike de piano, and onderstand most of te oder instruments." "Anything else?"

"I speak French, and can declaim, and am beginning to make de

verses.'

Very goot," said Levi; "but, can you brush clothes, and clean boots ?"

"Mr. Levi!"

"Can you groom de horse, drive de coach, and clean de stable ?” "Sare!"

"Can you clean knives and forks, brush de room, and vait at table?"

"For vat do you take me for, Mr. Levi? I'm a diletantte.”

"You are a poor devil, tat's vot you are," said Mr. Levi contemptuously, and was about to leave, when Benjamin stopped him. The idea, the hope of being in the same house, under any circumstances, with Rachel, was too tempting a chance to let pass.

"Mr. Levi, vot vill you give me?"

"Vell! you shall find me liberal. You shall have my old boots to begin with."

"Your old boots, Mr. Levi!"

"Yes! and if you behave vell, vy, I may give you my old clothes."

"Te old clothes and te boots. Ach! vot shall I say—I vill tink." "Tink! tink vot? you may, through my connexions, become a great man!"

"Ha!" thought Benjamin, "perhaps he means his daughter, if I do vell."

"Mr. Levi, I vill come and do all and every ting, but I ask de favour."

"Vell!"

"You have a daughter, Rachel, I am so enchainted vit her." "Vot!" said Levi, starting with surprise.

"You must promise her to me in time ven I shall bring honour to you."

-a vaga

And I'll bring you to te police! You my daughter? bond-a pedlar vithout vares! you must be vorse tan mad!" and in a violent passion the banker walked away.

"A vagabond!-a pedlar!" said Benjamin. "He don't tink I know he vas vorse tan pedlar himself, or he vould not have been kept so long at Pillau."

No sooner was Mr. Levi out of sight than David Meyer suddenly came up to Benjamin, and said, "Vot for you insult Miss Rachel? vot for you shake de fist at me? Take tat, you pitiful fellow!" and suiting the action to the word, he laid Benjamin prostrate with a vigorous blow of a stick, and valorously ran away. Benjamin bellowed out lustily, "Fire, murder, robbery," &c., and was in the act of running after his assailant, when he was arrested by the arm of the stranger in the cloak, who said, "Leave not this spot; remember my words," and again disappeared.

While Benjamin was indulging alternately in threats of vengeance on the composer, gloomy meditations upon his unlucky début in the world, and wonderment at his mysterious friend, he heard a posthorn, and shortly afterwards an estafette galloped across the square, and stopped at the "Lotterrie Einnehmer," before the door of which Benjamin was, and had been standing.

"Hollo!" said the boy to him, "is this Moses Guilders wetz's?" "Vere do you come from, my boy?" said Benjamin.

66

From the next station. Is this Moses-"

"Is 't a tispatch from Berlin?"

66

Yes; but can't you answer-is this"

66 Vat's te newsh?-vat's on te road?”

"Mud smorsch," said the boy; and, blowing his horn, called out, "'Stafette-'stafette."

"Somebody's von te great prize," said Benjamin. "I vonder who has te number?"

Guilderswetz, who was lame, here came hobbling from his house, and, cursing the 'staffette, asked him "why he kept blowing his horn, instead of dismounting with his despatch ?"

"It is not my fault," said the boy. "That fellow there would not answer my question whether this was your house, for I can't read, but kept questioning me."

"Vot," said Guilderswetz, in a rage, to Benjamin, "you dirty young scamp!-vot for you ask questions?—vot for you keep my staffete, you eavesdropper?"

"Mr. Guilderswetz," said Benjamin.

"Don't speak to me, rascal. Vere's te despatch, boy?"

66

Here, sir. I wish you joy-you have sold the great prize."

"Te great prize!" cried the lottery contractor.

-here, vife! shilds !-goot newsh! goot newsh!"

"Gott's wonder !

"Mr. Guilderswetz," anxiously said Benjamin, "do open it here. You know I bought a ticket from you—from you?”

VOL. XV.

2 U

"Let me alone, you scamp! Be off! I'll open te tespatch in te office. Your tichet! ha! ha!-no such luck for a sorry tevil like you." So saying, the contractor hobbled in.

"Ach!" said Benjamin, "I believe so. Sorry tevils have no luck : 'tis only te rich tat have tat-dey are alvays right. I am beginning te vorlt vell, inteet. Every von has te bad vort for me: te vorst is too goot ;"—and he heaved a deep sigh.

The horn of the estafette had by this time collected a considerable number of persons round Guilders wetz's door, anxious to learn the

news.

"Joy in Israel!" cried the lottery contractor, coming out, and flourishing his crutch, "joy in Israel!-joy passing joy!-fortune has befriended von of our people. Vere is he?"

"Who's von? who's von?" exclaimed all the Jews clamorously. "Vere is he?" said Guilderswetz, "ah! dere!" And he rushed as well as he could towards Benjamin, who was standing timidly in the rear of the crowd, and clasped him in his arms. "Dearest friend, -YOU-YOU HAVE VON DE GREAT PRIZE!"

Benjamin shrieked with joy, while the Jews cried out, “Vot a joyful newsh!"

'Yesh," continued Guilderswetz, "yesh, my tear poy, te great prize is YOURS! I just trew my eye over te letter, and saw your number, and rushed to tell you of it vitout loss of time. You vill dine vit me to-day-all your family must dine vit me, vit a velcom from te soul. You vill be a friend to me, vill you?"

"I vill dine vit you, Mr. Guilders wetz," said Benjamin ; " I vill be your friend."

"Let me press you to my hairt vonce more," said the lottery man. By this time the news had spread, and the Jews from all quarters had gathered, surrounding Benjamin, and clapping their hands. Forcing his way through the crowd, came his father Abraham, crying,

"Vere is my sone? Ah! Benjamin, my sone, is it true? Yesh? Joy, joy!-you are, ten, rich! Now, who have you to tank for your goot fortune, my sone?"

"Te lottery," said Benjamin.

"Vot! haven't you to tank me too?”

"How, fater! You never gave me money to put into te lottery. I alvays did so secretly."

"Didn't I give you life? If I hadn't given you life, my sone, could you have robbed your fater to put into te lottery? I've made a man of you!”

"Te lottery's made a man of me."

Benjamin! you leetle rogue, you do but jest vit your fater. Fater and sone are von flesh; vot te sone has, tat has te fater."

'Very goot! But a short time since it vas not só; ten vot te sone has not, te fater has. You turned me on te vorlt vit fifteen tolers!"

"It vos for te best. I don't ask for all te monish, my best of sones. I've no avarish. Let's 'stablish a banking-house-I'll do all te bushiness, and give you half te profits."

"I'll keep my vinnings," said Benjamin doggedly.

"Vould you break your aged fater's hairt? I've no avarish, no!