Book IV: The Rail, Chapters 15-20 Summary

David runs all the way to cheder, where, in the company of the other, familiar boys, he is able to forget the horrors of the earlier hours. At cheder, he is called to read before the rabbi's supervisor and does an excellent job, reaping praise. Still reeling from his earlier experience, riddled with guilt, and fearful that his parents will be told, David begins to cry. When the rabbis insist that he tell them what is wrong, he makes up a tale that his mother is really dead, his father is an organist in Europe, and that the woman he calls mother is truly an aunt. He further explains that another aunt, Bertha, has told him this.

When cheder ends, David is afraid to go home, for it is almost certain that his...