house.
Ascher heaved a sigh of relief; he rubbed his hand across his forehead;
it was wet with perspiration.

"Thank God!" he cried, as though addressing himself, "that 's over, and
won't come again till to-morrow."

"Ephraim, my son!" he cried, with a sudden outburst of cheerfulness,
accompanying the words with a thundering bang upon the table, "Ephraim,
my son, you shall soon see what sort of a father you have. Now, you 're
continually worrying your brains, walking your feet off, trying to get a
skin, or praying some fool of a peasant to be good enough to sell you
a bit of wool. Ephraim, my son, all that shall soon be changed, take
my word for it. I 'll make you rich, and as for Viola, I 'll get her a
husband--such a husband that all the girls in Bohemia will turn green
and yellow with envy.... Ascher's daughter shall have as rich a dowry as
the daughter of a Rothschild.... But there 's one thing, and one thing
only, that I need, and then all will happen as I promise, in one night."

"And what is that, father!" asked Ephraim, with a slight shudder.

"Luck, luck, Ephraim, my son!" he shouted. "What is a man without luck?
Put a man who has no luck in a chest full of gold; cover him with gold
from head to foot; when he crawls out of it, and you search his pockets,
you 'll find the gold has turned to copper."

"And will you have luck, father?" asked Ephraim.

"Ephraim, my son!" said the old gambler, With a cunning smile, "I 'll
tell you something. There are persons whose whole powers are devoted to
one object--how to win a fortune; in the same way as there are some
who study to become doctors, and the like, so these study what we call
luck... and from them I 've learned it."

He checked himself in sudden alarm lest he might have said too much, and
looked searchingly at his son. A pure soul shone through Ephraim's open
countenance, and showed his father that his real meaning had not been
grasped.

"Never mind," he shouted loudly, waving his arms in the air, "what is to
come no man can stop. Give me something to drink, Ephraim."

"Father," the latter faltered, "don't you think it will harm you?"

"Don't be a fool, Ephraim!" cried Ascher, "you don't know my
constitution. Besides, did n't you say that to-day was a fast, when it
is forbidden to eat anything? And have I asked you for any food? But
as for drink, that's quite another thing! The birds of the air can't do
without it, much less man!"

Ephraim saw that f