Watchful was she as any cat--and harmless as a tame rabbit.

If she caught the maids at fault, she found an excuse for them at the same time.

If she was quite exasperated with the stupidity of Yakub, the dvornik, she pretended to curse him in a phrase of her own invention, a mixture of Hebrew and Russian, which, translated, said, "Mayst thou have gold and silver in thy bosom"; but to the choreman, who was not a linguist, the mongrel phrase conveyed a sense of his delinquency.
Grandma Rachel meant to be very strict with us children, and accordingly was prompt to discipline us; but we discovered early in our acquaintance with her that the child who got a spanking was sure to get a hot cookie or the jam pot to lick, so we did not stand in great awe of her punishments.

Even if it came to a spanking it was only a farce.

Grandma generally interposed a pillow between the palm of her hand and the area of moral stimulation.
The real disciplinarian in our family was my father.