med to wish not to meet
me, and yet he sought occasion to do so, and would look earnestly into
my face.

The excitement of my neighbors and their behavior to me interested me
very little; but I wanted very much to know the reason why I had
suddenly become abhorrent to them? I could by no means understand it.

Once there came a wild, dark night. The sky was covered with black
clouds, there was a drenching rain and hail and a stormy wind, it was
pitch dark, and it lightened and thundered, as though the world were
turning upside down. The great thunder claps and the hail broke a good
many people's windows, the wind tore at the roofs, and everyone hid
inside his house, or wherever he found a corner. In that dreadful dark
night my door opened, and in came--Yuedel, the "living orphan"; he looked
as though someone were pushing him from behind, driving him along. He
was as white as the wall, cowering, beaten about, helpless as a leaf.
He came in, and stood by the door, holding his hat; he couldn't decide,
did not know if he should take it off, or not. I had never seen him so
miserable, so despairing, all the time I had known him. I asked him to
sit down, and he seemed a little quieted. I saw that he was soaking wet,
and shivering with cold, and I gave him hot tea, one glass after the
other. He sipped it with great enjoyment. And the sight of him sitting
there sipping and warming himself would have been very comic, only it
was so very sad. The tears came into my eyes. Yuedel began to brighten
up, and was soon Yuedel, his old self, again. I asked him how it was he
had come to me in such a state of gloom and bewilderment? He told me the
thunder and the hail had broken all the window-panes in his lodging, and
the wind had carried away the roof, there was nowhere he could go for
shelter; nobody would let him in at night; there was not a soul he could
turn to, there remained nothing for him but to lie down in the street
and die.

"And so," he said, "having known you so long, I hoped you would take me
in, although you are 'one of them,' not at all pious, and, so they say,
full of evil intentions against Jews and Jewishness; but I know you are
a good man, and will have compassion on me."

I forgave Yuedel his rudeness, because I knew him for an outspoken man,
that he was fond of talking, but never did any harm. Seeing him
depressed, I offered him a glass of wine, but he refused it.

I understood the reason of his refusal, and star