together insignificant, for he, "the full basket,"
was not finding it any too easy to master. And what he had to deal with
were not empty speculations, unfounded opinions. No, here were
mathematical computations, demonstrations which almost anyone can test
for himself, which impress themselves on the mind! And Reb Shloimeh is
vexed in his soul. He endeavored to cling to his old thoughts, his old
conceptions. He so wished to cry out upon the clear reasoning, the
simple explanations, with the phrases that are on the lips of every
ignorant obstructionist. And yet he felt that he was unjust, and he gave
up disputing with the teacher, as he paid close attention to the
latter's demonstrations. And the teacher would say quite simply:

"One _can_ measure," he would say, "why not? Only it takes a lot of
learning."

When the teacher was at the door, Reb Shloimeh stayed him with a
question.

"Then," he asked angrily, "the whole of 'your' learning is nothing but
astronomy and geography?"

"Oh, no!" said the teacher, "there's a lot besides--a lot!"

"For instance?"

"Do you want me to tell you standing on one leg?"

"Well, yes, 'on one leg,'" he answered impatiently, as though in anger.

"But one can't tell you 'on one leg,'" said the teacher. "If you like, I
shall come on Sabbath, and we can have a chat."

"Sabbath?" repeated Reb Shloimeh in a dissatisfied tone.

"Sabbath, because I can't come at any other time," said the teacher.

"Then let it be Sabbath," said Reb Shloimeh, reflectively.

"But soon after dinner," he called after the teacher, who was already
outside the door. "And everything else is as right as your astronomy?"
he shouted, when the teacher had already gone a little way.

"You will see!" and the teacher smiled.

* * * * *

Never in his whole life had Reb Shloimeh waited for a Sabbath as he
waited for this one, and the two days that came before it seemed very
long to him; he never relaxed his frown, or showed a cheerful face the
whole time. And he was often seen, during those two days, to lift his
hands to his forehead. He went about as though there lay upon him a
heavy weight, which he wanted to throw off; or as if he had a very
disagreeable bit of business before him, and wished he could get it
over.

On Sabbath he could hardly wait for the teacher's appearance. "You
wanted a lot of asking," he said to him reproachfully.

The old lady went to take her nap, the gr