and there was still greater interest shown on the part of certain
philanthropists, party leaders, public workers, and such-like. They knew
that when I set up trading in the world-to-come, I had announced that my
business was only with the poor. Well, they understood that it was
likely to be profitable, and might give them the chance of licking a
bone or two. There was very soon a great tararam in our little world,
people began inquiring where my goods came from. They surrounded me with
spies, who were to find out what I did at night, what I did on Sabbath;
they questioned the cook, the market-woman; but in vain, they could not
find out how I came by the world-to-come. And there blazed up a fire of
jealousy and hatred, and they began to inform, to write letters to the
authorities about me. Laban the Yellow and Balaam the Blind (you know
them!) made my boss believe that I do business, that is, that I have
capital, that is--that is--but my employer investigated the matter, and
seeing that my stock in trade was the world-to-come, he laughed, and let
me alone. The townspeople among whom it was my lot to dwell, those good
people who are a great hand at fishing in troubled waters, as soon as
they saw the mud rise, snatched up their implements and set to work,
informing by letter that I was dealing in contraband. There appeared a
red official and swept out a few corners in my house, but without
finding a single specimen bit of the world-to-come, and went away. But I
had no peace even then; every day came a fresh letter informing against
me. My good brothers never ceased work. The pious, orthodox Jews, the
Gemoreh-Koeplech, informed, and said I was a swindler, because the
world-to-come is a thing that isn't there, that is neither fish, flesh,
fowl, nor good red herring, and the whole thing was a delusion; the
half-civilized people with long trousers and short earlocks said, on the
contrary, that I was making game of religion, so that before long I had
enough of it from every side, and made the following resolutions: first,
that I would have nothing to do with the world-to-come and such-like
things which the Jews did not understand, although they held them very
precious; secondly, that I would not let myself in for selling
anything. One of my good friends, an experienced merchant, advised me
rather to buy than to sell: "There are so many to sell, they will
compete with you, inform against you, and behave as no one should.
Buying, o