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124 SHOLOM-ALECHEM
on its poor face, killed, broken, shattered, and smashed for evermore !
"There is an end to the clock !" said my father, white as the wall. He hung his head, wrung his fingers, and the tears came into his eyes. I looked at my father and wanted to cry, too.
"There now, see, what is the use of fretting to death?" said my mother. "No doubt it was so decreed and written down in Heaven that to-day, at that par- ticular minute, our clock was to find its end, just (I beg to distinguish!) like a human being, may God not punish me for saying so ! May it be an Atonement for not remembering the Sabbath, for me, for thee, for our children, for all near and dear to us, and for all Israel. Amen, Selah!"
