Explore "The Bearer of Burdens" by Israel Zangwill on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
In the bearing of her first child the second Mrs. Elkman died. The / rosy face became a white angelic mask, the dainty figure lay in / statuesque severity, and a screaming, bald-headed atom of humanity was / the compensation for this silence. Henry Elkman was overwhelmed by / grief and superstition.
'For three things women die in childbirth,' kept humming in his brain / from his ancient Hebrew lore. He did not remember what they were, / except that one was the omission of the wife to throw into the fire / the lump of dough from the Sabbath bread. But these neglects could not / be visited on a Christian, he thought dully. The only distraction of / his grief was the infant's pressing demand on his attention.