pting it. If I happen to visit him, I am on a
footing with all his followers, the Chassidim; his "trustees," and all
his other hangers-on, are my brothers, and come to me when they please,
with all the mud on their boots, put their hand into my bosom and take
out my tobacco-pouch, and give it as their opinion that the brandy is
weak, not to talk of holidays, especially Purim and Rejoicing of the
Law, when they troop in with a great noise and vociferation, and drink
and dance, and pay as much attention to me as to the cat.

In fact, all the townsfolk took the same liberties with me. Before, they
asked nothing of me, and took me as they found me, now they began to
_demand_ things of me and to inquire why I didn't do this, and why I did
that, and not the other. Shmuelke the bather asked me why I was never
seen at the bath on Sabbath. Kalmann the butcher wanted to know why,
among the scape-fowls, there wasn't a white one of mine; and even the
beadle of the Klaus, who speaks through his nose, and who had never
dared approach me, came and insisted on giving me the thirty-nine
stripes on the eve of the Day of Atonement: "Eh-eh, if you are a Jew
like other Jews, come and lie down, and you shall be given stripes!"

And the Palestinian Jews never ceased coming with their bags of earth,
and I never ceased rejecting. One day there came a broad-shouldered Jew
from "over there," with his bag of Palestinian earth. The earth pleased
me, and a conversation took place between us on this wise:

"How much do you want for your earth?"

"For my earth? From anyone else I wouldn't take less than thirty rubles,
but from you, knowing you and _of_ you as I do, and as your parents did
so much for Palestine, I will take a twenty-five ruble piece. You must
know that a person buys this once and for all."

"I don't understand you," I answered. "Twenty-five rubles! How much
earth have you there?"

"How much earth have I? About half a quart. There will be enough to
cover the eyes and the face. Perhaps you want to cover the whole body,
to have it underneath and on the top and at the sides? O, I can bring
you some more, but it will cost you two or three hundred rubles,
because, since the good-for-nothings took to coming to Palestine, the
earth has got very expensive. Believe me, I don't make much by it, it
costs me nearly...."

"I don't understand you, my friend! What's this about bestrewing the
body? What do you mean by it?"

"How do you mean, '