ing sun.

The second wine-cup had been served, the faces and voices of the guests
were growing merrier, and the Rabbi, as he took a loaf of unleavened
bread and raised it with a cheerful smile, read these words from the
_Agade_: "Behold! This is the food which our fathers ate in Egypt! Let
every one who is hungry come and enjoy it! Let every one who is
sorrowful come and share the joy of our Passover! This year we celebrate
it here, but in years to come in the land of Israel. This year we
celebrate it as servants, but in the years to come as sons of freedom!"

Then the hall door opened, and two tall, pale men, wrapped in very loose
cloaks, entered and said:

"Peace be with you. We are men of your faith on a journey, and wish to
share the Passover-feast with you!" And the Rabbi replied promptly and
kindly:

"Peace be with you! Sit ye down near me!" The two strangers immediately
sat down at the table, and the Rabbi read on. Several times while the
others were repeating a sentence after him, he said an endearing word to
his wife; once, alluding to the old humorous saying that on this evening
a Hebrew father of a family regards himself as a king, he said to her,
"Rejoice, oh my Queen!" But she replied with a sad smile, "The Prince is
wanting," meaning by that a son, who, as a passage in the _Agade_
requires, has to ask his father, with a certain formula of words, what
the meaning of the festival is? The Rabbi said nothing, but pointed with
his finger to an opened page of the _Agade_, on which was a pretty
picture, showing how the three angels came to Abraham, announcing that
he would have a son by his wife Sara, who, meanwhile, urged by feminine
curiosity, is slyly listening to it all behind the tent-door. This
little sign caused a threefold blush to color the cheeks of Beautiful
Sara, who first looked down, and then glanced pleasantly at her husband,
who went on chanting the wonderful story how Rabbi Jesua, Rabbi Eliezer,
Rabbi Asaria, Rabbi Akiba, and Rabbi Tarphen sat reclining in Bona-Brak,
and conversed all night long of the Exodus from Egypt, till their
disciples came to tell them that it was daylight, and that the great
morning prayer was being read in the synagogue.

While Beautiful Sara sat devoutly listening to and looking at her
husband, she saw his face suddenly assume an expression of agony or
horror, his cheeks and lips become deathly pale, and his eyes harden
like two balls of ice; but almost immediately