Page:Yiddish Tales.djvu/237

 EZEIELK THE SCRIBE 233

When it came to Tabernacles, he trafficked in citrons and "palms."

For three years Ezrielk and his 'Channehle struggled at their trades, working themselves nearly to death (of Zion's enemies be it spoken!), till, with the help of Heaven, they came to be twenty years old.

By this time Ezrielk and Channehle were the parents of four living and two dead children. Channehle, the once so lovely Channehle, looked like a beaten Hosha- nah, and Ezrielk you remember the picture drawn at the time of his wedding? well, then try to imagine what he was like now, after those seven years we have described for you! It's true that he was not spitting blood any more, either because Reb Yainkel had been right, when he said that would pass away, or because there was not a drop of blood in the whole of his body.

So that was all right only, how were they to live? Even Reb Yainkel and all the Hostre Chassidim to- gether could not tell him !

The singing had raised him and lifted him off his feet, and let him fall. And do you know why it was and how it was that everything Ezrielk took to turned out badly? It was because the singing was always there, in his head and his heart. He prayed and studied, sing- ing. He bought and sold, singing. He sang day and night. No one heard him, because he was hoarse, but he sang without ceasing. Was it likely he would be a successful trader, when he was always listening to what Heaven and earth and everything around him were singing, too ? He only wished he could have been a slaughterer or a Rav (he was apt enough at study),