His parents had kept him so far, but they had two daughters to marry off, and not a groschen laid by for their dowries.

The cost of my father's schooling, as he advanced, had mounted to seventeen rubles a term, and the poor rebbe was seldom paid in full.

Of course my father's scholarship was his fortune--in time it would be his support; but in the meanwhile the burden of feeding and clothing him lay heavy on his parents' shoulders.

The time had come to find him a well-to-do father-in-law, who should support him and his wife and children, while he continued to study in the seminary.
After the usual conferences between parents and marriage brokers, my father was betrothed to an undertaker's daughter in Polotzk.

The girl was too old,--every day of twenty years,--but three hundred rubles in dowry, with board after marriage, not to mention handsome presents to the bridegroom, easily offset the bride's age.