The Fourth Estate Read Online Free PDF Page A

swaying from the inn, happy to allow Lubji to struggle
with the sleigh full of goods with one hand and to guide him with the other.
    When his mother
opened the front door, Papa staggered past her and collapsed onto the mattress.
Within moments he was snoring.
    Lubji helped his
mother drag their purchases into the cottage. But however warmly her eldest son
spoke about them, she didn’t seem at all pleased with the results of a year’s
labor. She shook her head as she decided what needed to be done with each of
the items.
    The sack of
grain was propped tip in a corner of the kitchen, the potatoes left in their
wooden box and the fish placed by the window. The clothes were then checked for
size before Zelta decided which of her children they should be allocated to.
The shoes were left by the door for whoever needed them. Finally, the buckle
was deposited in a small cardboard box which Lubji watched his mother hide
below a loose floorboard on his father’s side of the bed.
    That night,
while the rest of the family slept, Lubji decided that he had followed his
father into the fields for the last time. The next morning, when Papa rose,
Lubji slipped into the shoes left by the door, only to discover that they were
too large for him. He followed his father out of the house, but this time he
went only as far as the outskirts of the town, where he hid behind a tree. He
watched as Papa disappeared out of sight, never once looking back to see if the
heir to his kingdom was following.
    Lubji turned and
ran back toward the market. He spent the rest of the day walking around the
stalls, finding out what each of them had to offer. Some sold fruit and
vegetables, while others specialized in furniture or household necessities. But
most of them were willing to trade anything if they thought they could make a
profit. He enjoyed watching the different techniques the traders used when
bargaining with their customers: some bullying, some cajoling, almost all lying
about the provenance of their wares. What made it more exciting for Lubji was
the different languages they conversed in. He quickly discovered that most of
the customers, like his father, ended up with a poor bargain. During the
afternoon he listened more carefully, and began to pick up a few words in
languages other than his own.
    By the time he
returned home that night, he had a hundred questions to ask his mother, and for
the first time he discovered that there were some even she couldn’t answer. Her
final comment that night to yet another unanswered question was simply, “It’s
time you went to school, little one.” The only problem was that there wasn’t a
school in Douski for anyone so young. Zelta resolved to speak to her uncle
about the problem as soon as the opportunity arose. After all, with a brain as
good as Lubji’s, her son might even end up as a rabbi.
    The following
morning Lubji rose even before his father had stirred, slipped into the one
pair of shoes, and crept out of the house without waking his brothers or
sisters. He ran all the way to the market, and once again began to walk around
the stalls, watching the traders as they set out their wares in preparation for
the day ahead. He listened as they bartered, and he began to understand more
and more of what they were saying. He also started to realize what his mother
had meant when she had told him that he had a God-given gift for languages.
What she couldn’t have known was that he had a genius for bartering.
    Lubji stood
mesmerized as he watched someone trade a dozen candles for a chicken, while
another parted with a chest of drawers in exchange for two sacks of potatoes.
He moved on to see a goat being offered in exchange for a worn-out carpet and a
cartful of logs being handed over for a mattress. How he wished he could have
afforded the mattress, which was wider and thicker than the one his entire
family slept on.
    Every morning he
would return to the marketplace. He learned that a barterer’s skill