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"Here, you fool, you've been and done a fine thing this time! All your silver was in the coat you've given away!" "Was it?" said Reb Shemuel, startled. Then the tranquil look returned to his brown eyes. "No, I took it all out before I gave away the coat." "God be thanked!" said Simcha fervently in Yiddish. "Where is it? I want a few shillings for grocery." "I gave it away before, I tell you!"
The Pole, looking a different being from the wretch who had come empty, departed invoking Peace on the household; Simcha went into the kitchen to superintend the removal of the crockery thither; Levi slipped out to pay his respects to Esther Ansell, for the evening was yet young, and father and daughter were left alone.
"Come, my beloved, to meet the Bride, the face of the Sabbath let us welcome." To-night his sweetheart would wear her Sabbath face, putting off the mask of the shrew, which hid not from him the angel countenance. To-night she would be in very truth Simcha rejoicing. A cheerful warmth glowed at his heart, love for all the wonderful Creation dissolved him in tenderness.
"My Hannah will teach you, God bless her." Reb Shemuel's voice was a bit husky. He bent down and kissed Hannah's forehead. "I was a bit link myself before I married my Simcha" he added encouragingly. "No, no, not you," said David, smiling in response to the twinkle in the Reb's eye. "I warrant you never skipped a Mitzvah even as a bachelor."
"Quick, Simcha, give me my new coat. It is very cold this morning." "You've given away your coat again!" shrieked his wife, who, though her name meant "Rejoicing," was more often upbraiding. "Yes, it was only an old one, Simcha," said the Rabbi deprecatingly. He took off his high hat and replaced it by a little black cap which he carried in his tail pocket.
The sight was familiar yet it always struck the simple old Reb anew, with a sense of special blessing. "Good Shabbos, Simcha," said Reb Shemuel. "Good Shabbos, Shemuel." said Simcha. The light of love was in her eyes, and in her hair her newest comb.
In Poland at least the youths would have flocked to marry her because she was a Rabbi's daughter, and they'd think It an honor to be a son-in-law of a Son of the Law. But in this godless country! Why in my village the Chief Rabbi's daughter, who was so ugly as to make one spit out, carried off the finest man in the district." "But thou, my Simcha, hadst no need to be connected with Rabbonim!"
This fair spot is neither a park nor grove nor pleasant woodland, but the imposing village of Hort, its pretty white houses half concealed by a wealth of trees and shrubbery. In this village lived a Jewish bookbinder, Simcha Kalimann, a wit and bel esprit, the oracle of the entire province, the living chronicle of his times and people.
Then Reb Shemuel repeated three times a series of sentences commencing: "Peace be unto you, ye ministering Angels," and thereupon the wonderful picture of an ideal woman from Proverbs, looking affectionately at Simcha the while. "A woman of worth, whoso findeth her, her price is far above rubies.
Hannah bit her lip in self-humiliation and hastened to load the lucky Pole's plate with an extra piece of fish. "He has written me a letter," she went on. "He has told me so," he answered. "He loves thee with a great love." "What nonsense, Shemuel!" broke in Simcha, setting down her coffee-cup with work-a-day violence.
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