"Games In Gardens"
by
Isaac Borrachsohn, Room 18’s only example of the gilded youth, could never be described as a brilliant scholar, but on a morning in early April Miss Bailey found him more trying even than was his wont. He was plainly the centre of some sub-evident interest. First Readers nudged one another and whispered together, casting awed or envious looks upon him, and when the hour for recess came he formed the centre of an excited and gesticulating crowd. But Isaac Borrachsohn had never quite outgrown his distrust for his Krisht teacher. It was fostered by all his womankind at home, and was insisted upon almost as an article of faith by his grandfather the Rabbi. It was not to him, therefore, that Miss Bailey looked for an explanation of the general excitement, though she knew that before the day should pass she would hear several accounts of it.
It was after three o’clock; the prescribed school work was over and friendly converse was the order of the hour. The Board of Monitors, closing the door carefully upon the last unofficial First Reader, gathered solemnly round Teacher and proceeded to relate Isaac Borrachsohn’s saga of his latest adventure.
“He says like that,” said Eva Gonorowsky, Monitor of Pencil Points, in awed and envious tones. “He says he goes by his papa’s side in a carriage on Games in Gardens.”
“I guess maybe he lies,” Nathan Spiderwitz, Monitor of Window Boxes, suggested with some disparagement. “I was to Gardens–Summer Gardens–mit my papa und no games stands in ’em. Stands bottles from beer und pretzels on’y. I ain’t seen nothings like how Ikey says.”
“And what does Ikey say?” asked Miss Bailey.
“Well,” began Morris Mowgelewsky, Monitor of the Gold Fish Bowl, “Ikey says Gardens is a house mit thousens und thousens from mans und ladies. Und they all sets by side theirselves, und they yells somethin’ fierce. Und in Gardens there ain’t no upstairs, on’y thousens und thousens from lights. Ikey says on the Bowery even he ain’t never seen how there is lights in Gardens.”
“Yes, dear, Ikey was quite right,” said Miss Bailey, beginning to discern the outline of Madison Square Garden with inter-scholastic athletic games in progress. “The mans and ladies” were, of course, the proud parents, sweethearts, relations, and various colleagues, and the “yells” were their unconfined joy and triumph.
“And flags,” supplemented Patrick Brennan, Monitor of Blackboards and Leader of the Line. “I says to that show-off, Ikey Borrachsohn, ‘Is there any flowers in that garden?’ And he says he didn’t see none ‘cept what the ladies had on ’em. And all the rest was flags. Flags hangin’ down out of the sky. Flags up in the lights, and everybody wavin’ flags. Gee! It was pretty if it’s true.”
“It’s quite true, dear,” Miss Bailey assured him. “I was there one night last week, and it was just as Isaac says.”
“You dun’no all what Ikey says,” Morris intervened. “He says a man comes mit a great big hammer–a awful big hammer mit a long handle. Und he takes that hammer–Missis Bailey this is how Ikey says–und he makes it shall go round und round by his head. Und then he takes und he throws it where some mans stands, und Ikey says he had mad looks, he was red on the face even, over somethings.”
“If any one got fresh with hammers on my pop’s beat,” Patrick Brennan interrupted, “they’d get pinched so quick they wouldn’t know what struck ’em, and Ikey says they was lots of police officers standin’ around doin’ nothin’. Ain’t he the liar!”
“Not this time,” said Miss Bailey; “he was telling you the truth.”
Then Nathan Spiderwitz took up the tale.
“Und sooner that man makes, like Morris says, mit hammers, comes more mans mit more hammers, und they throws ’em. Und comes more mans mit from iron balls so big like Ikey’s head, und they throws ’em, und the ladies und the mans they stands und yells, und music plays, und the ladies make go their flags und scups up und down on their seats. Und the mans mit those balls und hammers they has awful mads. They is red on the face, und they tries und they tries–Missis Bailey, Ikey says it’s somethin’ fierce how they tries–und they couldn’t never to hit nobody.”