on to indicate a crown. There are lots of ways. One could always
give one's self a device,' he concluded in Yiddish.

'But it is written in Job, "He disappointeth the devices of the
crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise." Have a
little of Job's patience, and trust the Lord to confound the sinner.
We shall yet see Simeon Samuels in the Bankruptcy Court.'

'I hope not, the rogue! I'd like to see him ruined!'

'That's what I mean. Leave him to the Lord.'

'The Lord is too long-suffering,' said Solomon. 'Ah, our _Parnass_ has
caught us up. Good _Shabbos_ (Sabbath), _Parnass_. This is a fine
scandal for a God-fearing congregation. I congratulate you.'

'Is he open again?' gasped the _Parnass_, hurled from his judicial
calm.

'Is my eye open?' witheringly retorted Barzinsky. 'A fat lot of good
your preacher does.'

'It was you who would elect him instead of Rochinsky,' the _Parnass_
reminded him. Barzinsky was taken aback.

'Well, we don't want foreigners, do we?' he murmured.

'And you caught an Englishman in Simeon Samuels,' chuckled the
_Parnass_, in whose breast the defeat of his candidate had never
ceased to rankle.

'Not he. An Englishman plays fair,' retorted Barzinsky. He seriously
considered himself a Briton, regarding his naturalization papers as
retrospective. 'We are just passing the Reverend Gabriel's house,' he
went on. 'Let us wait a moment; he'll come along, and we'll give him a
piece of our minds.'

'I can't keep my family waiting for _Kiddush'_ (home service), said
Peleg.

'Come home, father; I'm hungry,' put in Peleg junior, who with various
Barzinsky boys had been trailing in the parental wake.

'Silence, impudent face!' snapped Barzinsky. 'If I was your
father----Ah, here comes the minister. Good _Shabbos_ (Sabbath), Mr.
Gabriel. I congratulate you on the effect of your last sermon.'

An exultant light leapt into the minister's eye. 'Is he shut?'

'Is your mouth shut?' Solomon replied scathingly. 'I doubt if he'll
even come to _Shool_ (synagogue) to-morrow.'

The ministerial mouth remained open in a fishy gasp, but no words came
from it.

'I'm afraid you'll have to use stronger language, Mr. Gabriel,' said
the _Parnass_ soothingly.

'But if he is not there to hear it.'

'Oh, don't listen to Barzinsky. He'll be there right enough. Just give
it to him hot!'

'Your sermon was too general,' added Peleg, who had lingered, though
his son had not. 'You might have