meant instant death, and that nothing
could relieve the boy but a hot bath. Miriam quieted the disputants by
promising to try both remedies. To her credit be it said, she applied
neither, but pinned her entire faith upon the coming remedy of the
_bal-shem_.

Friday noon came but it brought no improvement. He continued delirious
and his mind dwelt upon his recent trials, at one moment struggling
against unseen enemies and the next calling piteously upon his brother
Jacob.

Hirsch and Miriam could witness his suffering no longer, but went to
their own room and gave free vent to the tears which would not be
repressed.

"Oh, if the answer from the Rabbi were but here," sighed Miriam.

"Itzig will have just arrived in Tchernigof," said her husband,
despondingly. "We can expect no answer until Monday morning."

"And must we sit helpless in the meantime?" sobbed Miriam, through her
tears.

The door opened and a woman living in the neighborhood entered to
inquire after the patient.

"See, Miriam," she said, "when I was feverish last year after my
confinement, a _snakharka_ gave me this bark with which to make a tea. I
used a part of it and you remember how quickly I recovered. Here is all
I have left. Try it on your boy; it can't hurt him and with God's help
it will cure him."

Yes, Miriam remembered how ill her neighbor had been and how rapid had
been her convalescence. She took the bark and examined it curiously,
made the tea and administered a portion without any visible effect.

"Continue to give it to him regularly until it is all gone," said the
neighbor, and she went home to prepare for the Sabbath.

Miriam, too, had her house to put in order and to prepare the table for
the following day; but for the first time the gold and silver utensils,
the snow-white linen--the luxurious essentials of the Sabbath
table--failed to give her pleasure. What did all her wealth avail her if
Mendel must die! Her husband sat apathetically at the boy's bedside,
watching his flushed face and listening to his delirious raving. The end
seemed near. The boy asked for drink and Miriam gave him more of the
tea.

Five o'clock sounded from the tower of a near-by church and Hirsch arose
to dress for the house of prayer. _Shabbes_ must not be neglected,
happen what may. Suddenly there was an unusual commotion in the narrow
lane in which stood Bensef's house. The door was hastily thrown open and
in rushed Itzig, the messenger to Tchern