appy, for I know he loves me dearly (although he does
not say so), for when he comes home his first word is for me,'

"'Sometimes, when my mother-in-law is in a good temper, she lets us eat
out of the same dish, and then he jokingly puts the daintiest bits on my
side; often when I wake in the mornings I find pinned to my pillow a few
words he has copied from the _Song of Songs_, put there before leaving
for the Synagogue.' Then Huldah added 'After returning himself from the
Synagogue on Sabbath Eve, my dear husband always looks at me with a
loving smile when he reads that part where it says: ''The price of a
virtuous woman is far above rubies, the heart of her husband trusteth in
her.' 'Yes indeed,' she said, 'thanks be to God--I am a very happy wife,
and when God blesses us with children, my cup of joy will be very full.'

"And this child-wife of fifteen did indeed look very happy as she
spoke--and I, deep down in my heart, thought, 'What would they say to
such match-making in England and Western Europe,' and yet in Palestine
such marriages arranged by the parents are nearly always happy.

"I must close now, Your loving Millie."

When Mr Jacob had finished reading, some of his young listeners said
they thought it was a very foolish way to arrange marriages. One of them
remarked: "How could there be any love, if a couple rarely met each
other before marriage."

Another said: "For my part, I would never marry unless I felt sure that
I was in love with my husband to-be and that he also was in love with
me. Love is everything in life, _I_ think."

Then said a middle-aged lady, much loved and respected by all the
listeners: "How often has many a marriage not turned out well, even when
as young people a husband and wife had a passionate love for each
other. The seed of love may be sown before or after marriage; but,
unless carefully cultivated during married life by both husband and
wife, through deeds of kindness and thoughtfulness and forbearance and
mutual sympathy and understanding, the tender plant may soon wither and
die. The old customs of our race, which this letter shows are still kept
up in Palestine and I believe in other parts where ghetto life still
obtains, if they are not carried to extremes, are, I think, very wise;
but, unfortunately, our people are very tempted to go to extremes, and a
good custom can thus be distorted and brought to ridicule."

"True, true," murmured some of the older people.

"In