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 444 NAUMBEEG

The last words were long drawn out, the Eav em- phasizing them with his hands and wrinkling his fore- head. Carried away by what he was saying, he now felt all but sure that Sholem had not begun to be a heretic.

"You see," he continued very gently, "every now and then we come to a stumbling-block, but all the same, we should not "

Meantime, however, the manuscript folio of verses had been slipping out from under Sholem's Four-Cor- ners, and here it fell to the ground. The Rav stood staring, as though startled out of a sweet dream by the cry of "fire." He quivered from top to toe, and seized his earlocks with both hands. For there could be no doubt of the fact that Sholem had now broken the Sab- bath a second time by carrying the folio outside the town limit. And worse still, he had practiced deception, by searching his pockets when they had come to the Eruv, as though to make sure not to transgress by having anything inside them.

Sholem, too, was taken by surprise. He hung his head, and his eyes filled with tears. The old man was about to say something, probably to begin again with "What is all this ?" Then he hastily stopt and snatched up the folio, as though he were afraid Sholem might get hold of it first.

"Ha ha azoi !" he began panting. "Azoi ! A heretic! A Goi."

But it was hard for him to speak. He might not move from where he stood, so long as he held the papers,