arpenter.

"Here, make the blessing," he said. "But be careful, in Heaven's name be
careful!"

Our neighbour Zalmen was a giant of a man--may no evil eye harm him! He
had two hands each finger of which might knock down three such Leibels
as I. His hands were always sticky, and his nails red from glue. And
when he drew one of these nails across a piece of wood, there was a mark
that might have been made with a sharp piece of iron.

In honour of the Festival, Zalmen had put on a clean shirt and a new
coat. He had scrubbed his hands in the bath, with soap and sand, but had
not succeeded in making them clean. They were still sticky and the nails
still red with glue.

Into these hands fell the dainty citron. It was not for nothing
Moshe-Yankel was excited when Zalmen gave the citron a good squeeze and
the palm a good shake.

"Be careful, be careful," he cried. "Now turn the citron head downwards,
and make the blessing. Carefully, carefully. For Heaven's sake, be
careful!"

Suddenly Moshe-Yankel threw himself forward, and cried out, "Oh!" The
cry brought his wife, Basse-Beila, running into the Tabernacle.

"What is it, Moshe-Yankel? God be with you!"

"Coarse blackguard! Man of the earth!" he shouted at the carpenter, and
was ready to kill him.

"How could you be such a coarse blackguard? Such a man of the earth? Is
a citron an ax? Or is it a saw? Or a bore? A citron is neither an ax nor
a saw nor a bore. You have cut my throat without a knife. You have
spoiled my citron. Here is the top of it--here, see! Coarse blackguard!
Man of the earth!"

We were all paralysed on the instant. Zalmen was like a dead man. He
could not understand how this misfortune had happened to him. How had
the top come off the citron? Surely he had held it very lightly, only
just with the tips of his fingers? It was a misfortune--a terrible
misfortune.

Basse-Beila was pale as death. She wrung her hands and moaned.

"When a man is unfortunate, he may as well bury himself alive and fresh
and well, right in the earth."

And Leibel? Leibel did not know whether he should dance with joy because
the Lord had performed a miracle for him, released him from all the
trouble he had got himself into, or whether he should cry for his
father's agony and his mother's tears, or whether he should kiss
Zalmen's thick hands with the sticky fingers and the red nails, because
he was his redeemer, his good angel.... Leibel looked at his father's
face and h