A Bessarabian Haberdasher

A Bessarabian haberdasher and his five sons whom he dispatched to four continents; a Litvak who in the wee hours stole horses from the Cossacks and, the next day, sold them back to the very same men; a wise merchant who took in his aimless nephew, charged him rent for three years and then, upon the young man's departure, returned him the entire sum plus interest; a slumlord who would leave his bed at any hour to see to his tenants' leaky pipes; a woman who made it to 98, outliving her husband by twenty-five years and remaining in her apartment for the entire period after his passing; and an amateur pilot who built his own plane in his basement, having no recourse but to tear down his outer wall to remove it.