of the Torah there is
uncleanness----"

Reb Shloimeh grew pale, and felt a rent in his heart. He stared at the
platform with round eyes and open mouth.

"The children are to be made into Gentiles," shouted the person on the
platform meantime, "and we have plenty of Gentiles, thank God, already!
Thus may they perish, with their name and their remembrance! We are not
short of Gentiles--there are more every day! And hatred increases, and
God knows what the Jews are coming to! Whoso has God in his heart, and
is jealous for the honor of the Law, let him see to it that the children
cease going to the place of peril!"

Reb Shloimeh wanted to call out, "Silence, you scoundrel!" The words all
but rolled off his tongue, but he contained himself, and moved on.

"The one who obeys will be blessed," proclaimed the individual on the
platform, "and whoso despises the decree, his end shall be Gehenna, with
that of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who sinned and made Israel to sin!"

With these last words the speaker threw a fiery glance at Reb Shloimeh.

A quiver ran through the Shool, and all eyes were turned on Reb
Shloimeh, expecting him to begin abusing the speaker. A lively scene was
anticipated. But Reb Shloimeh smiled.

He quietly handed his prayer-scarf to the beadle, wished the bystanders
"good Sabbath," and walked out of Shool, leaving them all disconcerted.

* * * * *

That Sabbath Reb Shloimeh was the quietest man in the whole town. He was
convinced that the interdict would have no effect on anyone. "People
are not so foolish as all that," he thought, "and they wouldn't treat
_him_ in that way!" He sat and laid plans for carrying on the education
in the Talmud Torah, and he felt so light of heart that he sang to
himself for very pleasure.

The old wife, meanwhile, was muttering and moaning. She had all her life
been quite content with her husband and everything he did, and had
always done her best to help him, hoping that in the world to come she
would certainly share his portion of immortality. And now she saw with
horror that he was like to throw away his future. But how ever could it
be? she wondered, and was bathed in tears: "What has come over you? What
has happened to make you like that? They are not just to you, are they,
when they say that about taking children and making Gentiles of them?"
Reb Shloimeh smiled. "Do you think," he said to her, "that I have gone
mad in my old age?