ought it was very wrong of the Father of the Universe to have taken
our house from us.

* * *

"I ask you--may your health increase!--what are we going to do with the
Tabernacle?" asked my mother of my father some time before the Feast of
Tabernacles.

"You probably mean to ask what are we going to do without a Tabernacle?"
replied my father, attempting to jest. I saw that he was distressed. He
turned away to one side, so that we might not see his face, which was
covered with a thick black cloud. My mother blew her nose to swallow her
tears. And I, looking at them.... Suddenly my father turned to us with a
lively expression on his face.

"Hush! We have here a neighbour called Moshe."

"Moshe-for-once?" asked my mother. And I do not know whether she was
making fun or was in earnest. It seemed she was in earnest, for, half an
hour later, the three were going about the house, father, Moshe, and
Hershke Mamtzes, our landlord, looking for a spot on which to erect a
Tabernacle.

* * *

Hershke Mamtzes' house was all right. It had only one fault. It stood
on the street, and had not a scrap of yard. It looked as if it had been
lost in the middle of the road. Somebody was walking along and lost a
house, without a yard, without a roof, the door on the other side of the
street, like a coat with the waist in front and the buttons underneath.
If you talk to Hershke, he will bore you to death about his house. He
will tell you how he came by it, how they wanted to take it from him,
and how he fought for it, until it remained with him.

"Where do you intend to erect the Tabernacle, '_Reb_' Moshe?" asked
father of Moshe-for-once. And Moshe-for-once, his hat on the back of his
head, was lost in thought, as if he were a great architect formulating a
big plan. He pointed with his hand from here to there, and from there to
here. He tried to make us understand that if the house were not standing
in the middle of the street, and if it had had a yard, we would have had
two walls ready made, and he could have built us a Tabernacle in a day.
Why do I say in a day? In an hour. But since the house had no yard, and
we needed four walls, the Tabernacle would take a little longer to
build. But for that again, we would have a Tabernacle for once. The main
thing was to get the material.

"There will be materials. Have you the tools?" asked Hershke.

"The tools will be found. Have you the timber?" asked Moshe.

"There is timber. Have you t