re kind, he called his servants to him as he
sat in the patio--Ali as well as the two bondwomen--for he had decided
that he must part with them also, and they must go their ways.

"My good people," he said, "you have been true and faithful servants to
me this many a year--you, Fatimah, and you also, Habeebah, since before
the days when my wife came to me--and you too, Ali, my lad, since you
grew to be big and helpful. Little I thought to part with you until my
good time should come; but my life in our poor Barbary is over already,
and to-morrow I shall be less than the least of all men in Tetuan. So
this is what I have concluded to do. You, Fatimah, and you, Habeebah,
being given to me as bondwomen by the Kaid in the old days when
my power, which now is little and of no moment, was great and
necessary--you belong to me. Well, I give you your liberty. Your papers
are in the name of Ben Aboo, and I have sealed them with his seal--that
is the last use but one that I shall put it to. Here they are, both of
them. Take them to the Kadi after prayers in the morning, and he will
ratify your title. Then you will be free women for ever after."

The black women had more than once broken in upon Israel's words with
exclamations of surprise and consternation. "Allah!" "Bismillah!" "Holy
Saints!" "By the beard of the Prophet!" And when at length he put the
deeds of emancipation into their hands they fell into loud fits of
hysterical weeping.

"As for you, Ali, my son," Israel continued, "I cannot give you your
freedom, for you are a freeman born. You have been a son to me these
fourteen years. I have another task for you--a perilous task, a solemn
duty--and when it is done I shall see you no more. My brave boy, you
will go far, but I do not fear for you. When you are gone I shall think
of you; and if you should sometimes think of your old master who could
not keep you, we may not always be apart."

The lad had listened to these words in blank bewilderment. That strange
disasters had of late befallen their household was an idea that had
forced itself upon his unwilling mind. But that Israel, the greatest,
noblest, mightiest man in the world--let the dogs of rasping Jews and
the scurvy hounds of Moors yelp and bark as they would--should fall to
be less than the least in Tetuan, and, having fallen that he should
send him away--him, Ali, his boy whom he had brought up, Naomi's old
playfellow--Allah! Allah! in the name of the merciful