ts died I took this child to my home, and I wished that he might
never remember that he was an orphan. I was then already a widower,
and I carried him in my own arms. His old great-grandmother took care
of him also, and she would give her soul for the happiness of his
soul. In her crown he is the first jewel, and now her old mouth opens
only for him. These are, Rabbi, the reasons why I have been more
indulgent with him than with my other children; these are the reasons
why my soul was ill when the melamed scolded and whipped him in the
heder, as the other children. I sinned then. I rushed into the heder
like a madman, spoke ugly words to the melamed, and took the boy away
with me. Rabbi, I sinned, because the melamed is a wise and saintly
man; but this sin will disappear from your mind, Rabbi, if you will
but think that I could not bear to look at the bruises on the body of
the son of my son. When such bruises appeared on the bodies of the
children of my son Raphael, and my son Abraham, and my son Ephraim, I
was silent, for their fathers were living--thanks be to God!--and
could look after their children. But when I saw the black-and-blue
marks on the back and shoulders of the orphan, Rabbi, then I
cried--then I shouted, and I sinned."

"That is not your only sin," said the Rabbi, who listened to Saul's
speech with the motionless severity of a judge, "and why did you send
him to Edomit?"

"Rabbi," answered Saul, "and how could he go through the world if he
did not understand the tongue of the people of this country, and
could not write his name to a contract or a note? Rabbi, my sons and
grandsons conduct large business transactions, and he will do the
same when he is married. His father's wealth belongs to him. He will
be rich and will have to talk with great lords, and how could he so
talk if I had not sent him to study with an Edomit?"

"May Edom perish with his abominable learning, and may the Lord not
forgive him!" grumbled the Rabbi, and after a while he added: "and
why did you not make of him a scholar instead of a merchant?"

"Rabbi," answered Saul, "the Ezofowich family is a family of
merchants. We are merchants from father to son--that is our custom."

Saying this, he raised his bent head. The mention of his family
caused him to grow proud and bold. But nothing could be compared with
the disdain with which, repeating after Saul, the Rabbi hissed:

"The Ezofowich family! It was always a grain of pepper in