nd I
needed Him, for we two together had a work to do, according to an
ancient covenant between Him and my forefathers.

This is the dream to which I was heir, in common with every sad-eyed
child of the Pale. This is the living seed which I found among my
heirlooms, when I learned how to strip from them the prickly husk in
which they were passed down to me. And what is the fruit of such seed
as that, and whither lead such dreams? If it is mine to give the
answer, let my words be true and brave.

CHAPTER III

BOTH THEIR HOUSES

Among the mediaeval customs which were preserved in the Pale when the
rest of the world had long forgotten them was the use of popular
sobriquets in place of surnames proper. Family names existed only in
official documents, such as passports. For the most part people were
known by nicknames, prosaic or picturesque, derived from their
occupations, their physical peculiarities, or distinctive
achievements. Among my neighbors in Polotzk were Yankel the Wig-maker,
Mulye the Blind, Moshe the Six-fingered; and members of their
respective families were referred to by these nicknames: as, for
example, "Mirele, niece of Moshe the Six-fingered."

Let me spread out my family tree, raise aloft my coat-of-arms, and see
what heroes have left a mark by which I may be distinguished. Let me
hunt for my name in the chronicles of the Pale.

In the village of Yuchovitch, about sixty versts above Polotzk, the
oldest inhabitant still remembered my father's great-grandfather when
my father was a boy. Lebe the Innkeeper he was called, and no reproach
was coupled with the name. His son Hayyim succeeded to the business,
but later he took up the glazier's trade, and developed a knack for
all sorts of tinkering, whereby he was able to increase his too scanty
earnings.

Hayyim the Glazier is reputed to have been a man of fine countenance,
wise in homely counsel, honest in all his dealings. Rachel Leah, his
wife, had a reputation for practical wisdom even greater than his. She
was the advice giver of the village in every perplexity of life. My
father remembers his grandmother as a tall, trim, handsome old woman,
active and independent. Satin headbands and lace-trimmed bonnets not
having been invented in her day, Rachel Leah wore the stately knupf or
turban on her shaven head. On Sabbaths and holidays she went to the
synagogue with a long, straight mantle hanging from neck to ankle; and
she wore it with an air