These goods, comprising all our possessions and all our tenant's, would presently be removed, to be sold at auction, for the benefit of the creditor.
Lame chairs and faded petticoats, when they are the last one has, have a vital value in the owner's eyes.

My mother moved about, weeping distractedly, all the while the officers were in the house.

The frightened children cried.

Our neighbors gathered to bemoan our misfortune.

And over everything was the peculiar dread which only Jews in Russia feel when agents of the Government invade their homes.
The fear of the moment was in my heart, as in every other heart there.
It was a horrid, oppressive fear.