s it. Yea, for it is as beautiful as the tower which looketh
forth toward Damascus, and as lofty as a cedar of Lebanon. Outwardly it
gleameth like gold loaf and syrup, and inwardly it is all music and
loveliness. It bloometh in summer and in winter it is frozen up--but in
summer and winter it is petted and pulled by the white hands of
Schnapper-Elle. Yes, she is madly in love with him. She nurses him, and
feeds him, and for her age she is young enough. When he is fat enough,
she means to marry him; and whoever comes to Frankfort, three hundred
years hence, will not be able to see the heavens for Nose Stars."

"Ah, you are Jaekel the Fool," exclaimed the Rabbi, laughing. "I mark it
by your words. I have often heard of you."

"Yes--yes," replied Jaekel, with comical modesty. "Yes, that is what
reputation does. A man is often known far and wide as a bigger fool than
he himself has any idea of. However, I take great pains to be a fool,
and jump and shake myself to make the bells ring; others have an easier
time. But tell me, Rabbi, why do you journey on a holiday?"

"My justification," replied the Rabbi, "is in the Talmud, where it says,
'Danger drives away the Sabbath.'"

"Danger!" screamed the tall Nose Star, in mortal terror. "Danger!
danger! Drummer Jack!--drum, drum. Danger! danger! Drummer Jack!" From
without resounded the deep, beery voice of Drummer Jack, "Death and
destruction! The devil take the Jews. That's the third time today that
you've roused me out of a sound sleep, Nose Star! Don't make me mad! For
when I am mad I'm the very devil himself; and then as sure as I'm a
Christian, I'll up with my gun and shoot through the grated window in
your gate--and then fellow, let everybody look out for his nose!"

"Don't shoot! don't shoot! I'm a lonely man," wailed Nose Star
piteously, pressing his face against the wall, and trembling and
murmuring prayers in this position.

"But say, what has happened?" cried Jaekel the Fool, with all the
impatient curiosity which was even then characteristic of the Frankfort
Jews.

But the Rabbi impatiently broke loose from them, and went his way along
the Jews' Street. "See, Sara!" he exclaimed, "how badly guarded is our
Israel. False friends guard its gates without, and within its watchers
are Folly and Fear."

They wandered slowly through the long empty street, where only here and
there the head of some young girl showed itself in a window, against the
polished panes of wh