lies stored in the treasure-houses of the hearts of happy parents. That
way everything was a waste. Always, as Israel entered her room, Ruth
would say, "How is the child?" And always Israel would answer, "She is
well." But, if at that moment Naomi's laughter came up to them from the
patio, where she played with Ali, they would cover their faces and be
silent.

It was a melancholy parting. No one came near them--neither Moor
nor Jew, neither Rabbi nor elder. The idle women of the Mellah would
sometimes stand outside in the street and look up at their house,
knowing that the black camel of death was kneeling at their gate. Other
company they had none. In such solitude they passed four weeks, and when
the time of the end seemed near, Israel himself read aloud the prayer
for the dying, the prayer Shema' Yisrael, and Ruth repeated the words of
it after him.

Meantime, while Ruth lay in the upper chamber little Naomi sported and
played in the patio with Ali, but she missed her mother constantly. This
she made plain by many silent acts of helpless love that knew no way to
speak aloud. Thus she would lay flowers on the seats where her mother
had used to sit, and, if at night she found them untouched where she
had left them, her little face would fall, and her laughter die off her
lips; but if they had withered and some one had cast them into the oven,
she would laugh again and fetch other flowers from the fields, until
the house would be full of the odour of the meadow and the scent of the
hill.

And well they knew, who looked upon her then, whom she missed, and what
the question was that halted on her tongue; yet how could they answer
her? There was no way to do that until she herself knew how to ask.

But this she did on a day near to the end. It was evening, and she
was being put to bed by Habeebah, and had just risen from her innocent
pantomime of prayer beside Ali, when Israel, coming from Ruth's chamber,
entered the children's room. Then, touching with her hand the seat
whereon Ruth had used to sit, Naomi laid down her head on the pillow,
and then rose and lay down again, and rose yet again and rose yet again
lay down, and then came to where Israel was and stood before him. And at
that Israel knew that the soul of his helpless child had asked him, as
plainly as words of the tongue can speak, how often she should lie to
sleep at night and rise to play in the morning before her mother came to
her again.

The tears gus