is fine cloak to
wear," and he proudly smoothed the robe wrapped about his chilled
limbs.

The man in gray motioned Reuben to sit beside the table and placed
food and drink before him. Half-famished, Reuben ate and drank, almost
fearing that it would disappear as a feast sometimes does in a dream.
For surely he was dreaming: when in all his wretched wandering life,
had people not of his own religion given him food and shelter and
received him with gentle words?

His host sat upon the couch, holding Benjamin upon his knee. Now and
then he spoke to the dark, haughty man who sat watching everything
lazily from beneath his half-closed lids. Twice he asked Reuben
whether he desired more food or drink. At last when the guest had
satisfied his hunger, the host asked him from what place he had come
and to what spot he meant to journey when the storm was over.

"I know not," answered the Jew. "My father's family was driven from
Spain. They fled to Brazil, and later settled in Cayenne, where among
our brethren from Holland we found a resting place until the French
destroyed our homes and drove us forth to be wanderers on the face of
the earth. When this child's mother died, I longed to go to a far
country where I might forget my grief a little and begin life anew. So
I took my son and came here with other voyagers to your colony of New
Amsterdam. But there they gave me no welcome, because I was a
Jew;--even in this new country some there are who hate the children of
Jacob." He leaned forward, his thin face alight with a wistful hope.
"But there they told me of a new colony in the far wilderness,--a
colony where men of every race, of every creed, were welcome. Far off
in the swamps and forests, they said, a man named Roger Williams had
established a refuge for all those who were persecuted and despised,
and had proclaimed that no man would be troubled there for the sake of
his religion, that each inhabitant might worship the God of his
fathers in peace. So I took my staff again and my burden upon my back
and my little child within my arms, and set out for this place where
my son might grow up a free man, and not be called upon to forsake the
faith for which we suffered in Spain."

The man in the velvet coat leaned across the table and spoke to Reuben
in Spanish. "I, too, came from Spain," he said, "and I, too, came as a
refugee; yea, with a price upon my head, for I had been denounced to
the officers of the Inquisition and wa