e, and saw
him some way off, where he stood swaying to and fro under a tree. I went
up to him--he was reciting the Song of Songs. I look closer and see that
the tree under which he stands is different from the other trees. The
others are still bare of leaves, and this one is green and in full leaf,
it shines like the sun, and stretches its flowery branches over the
Shochet's head like a tent. And a quantity of birds hop among the twigs
and join in singing the Song of Songs. I am so astonished that I stand
there with open mouth and eyes, rooted like the trees.

He ends his chant, the tree is extinguished, the little birds are
silent, and he turns to me, and says affectionately:

"Listen, Yuedele,"--Yuedel is my name--"I have a request to make of you."

"Really?" I answer joyfully, and I suppose he wishes me to bring him out
some food, and I am ready to run and bring him our whole Sabbath dinner,
when he says to me:

"Listen, keep what you saw to yourself."

This sobers me, and I promise seriously and faithfully to hold my
tongue.

"Listen again. You are going far away, very far away, and the road is a
long road."

I wonder, however should I come to travel so far? And he goes on to say:

"They will knock the Rebbe's Torah out of your head, and you will forget
Father and Mother, but see you keep to your name! You are called
Yuedel--remain a Jew!"

I am frightened, but cry out from the bottom of my heart:

"Surely! As surely may I live!"

Then, because my own idea clung to me, I added:

"Don't you want something to eat?"

And before I finished speaking, he had vanished.

The second week after they fell upon us and led me away as a Cantonist,
to be brought up among the Gentiles and turned into a soldier.

* * * * *

Time passed, and I forgot everything, as he had foretold. They knocked
it all out of my head.

I served far away, deep in Russia, among snows and terrific frosts, and
never set eyes on a Jew. There may have been hidden Jews about, but I
knew nothing of them, I knew nothing of Sabbath and festival, nothing of
any fast. I forgot everything.

But I held fast to my name!

I did not change my coin.

The more I forgot, the more I was inclined to be quit of my torments and
trials--to make an end of them by agreeing to a Christian name, but
whenever the bad thought came into my head, he appeared before me, the
same Shochet, and I heard his voice say to me, "Keep yo