ips were pressed to the hand which hung down powerless.
A wonderful contrast this single kiss of love in the midst of all
that hatred and fury. With a last, almost superhuman effort, he
pushed off his assailants, stooped down, and, before anybody had time
to rush at him again, lifted a child up in his arms. It threw its
arms around his neck, and looked with streaming eyes dilated with
terror at the people.

"It is my child! it is my Lejbele! do not hurt him!" called the
frightened voice of the tailor Shmul from the crowd.

"Reb!" called out several voices to the melamed, "he is shielding
himself behind the child--the child loves him!"

"Take away the child and tear from him the writing!" yelled the
melamed.

But nobody obeyed him. They still pulled at his clothes at his sides
and behind, a few stones whizzed over his head; but he saw a clear
space in front of him, and, with a few bounds, he reached the porch,
which an invisible hand opened quickly, and as quickly bolted after
he had entered.

Meir put the child down in the dark passage, and he himself entered
the sitting-room, where, by the light of the lamp, he saw the whole
family assembled. Panting and breathless, he leaned against the wall,
and his dull eyes looked slowly round the room. All were silent.
Never since the house of Ezofowich had existed in the world had a
member of that family looked like the pale, panting youth whose head
was covered with dust and mud, and whose garments hung in tatters
around him. The forehead, moist with the dew of mortal anguish, was
marked across with a red scar, caused by a rough stone, or perhaps
some blunt instrument in the darkness of the Bet-ha-Midrash.

But for the expression of pride and undaunted courage in his face, he
might have been taken for a begging outcast or a hunted criminal.

Saul covered his face with both hands. Some of the women sobbed
aloud. Raphael, Abraham, and other grave members of the family rose
from their seats, stern and angry, and called out in one voice:

"Ill-fated lad!" They were about to surround him, and to speak to
him, when suddenly the shutters flew open with a crash, the windows
shattered into bits, and heavy stones thundered against the furniture
from beyond the broken windows, yells and shouts arose, over which
dominated the hoarse voice of the melamed. They called for Meir to
give up the writing, heaped abuse and insults on the family, and
threatened them with heaven's and the p