tars are fixed and how the planets
grow, and how all the nations of the world live, and what kind of a
sacred book they have. I would like to read their books, and learn
from them God's thought and human lot, in order that my soul might
become filled with science as the sea is filled with water."

Suddenly he stopped, and his voice broke with a sigh of inexpressible
longing and insatiable desire. Again he was silent for a while, and
then added softly:

"I would like to be as happy as was Rabbi Akiba."

"And who was Rabbi Akiba?" asked Golda shyly.

Meir's thoughtful eyes lit up and shone.

"He was a great man, Golda. I read his story often, and I was reading
it again when you came."

"I know a great many beautiful stories," said Golda; "they grow in my
soul, like red, fragrant roses! Meir, give me one more such rose that
it may shine for me when I may not see you."

Their looks met and a soft smile played about Meir's mouth.

"Do you understand Hebrew?"

She hastily nodded in the affirmative.

"Yes, I understand. Zeide taught me." Meir turned a few pages of the
book which his lap and read aloud:

"Kolba Sabua was a rich man. His palaces were high as mountains and
his dresses shone with gold. In his gardens grew fragrant cedars,
palms with large leaves, and there bloomed sweet scented roses of
Sharon."

"But more beautiful than the high palaces, than the fragrant cedars
and crimson roses, more beautiful than all the maidens in Israel was
his daughter, young Rachel."

"Kolba Sabua had as many herds as there were stars in the heavens,
and these herds were watched by a poor youth who was tall, like a
young cedar, and his face was pale and sad, as it is with a man who
wishes to free his soul from the darkness, but cannot."

"The name of that youth was Joseph Akiba, and he lived on a high
mountain on which the herds of his master grazed."

"And it happened once upon a time, that the beautiful Rachel came to
her father, threw herself on the ground before him, kissed his feet,
and wept bitterly; then she spoke: 'I want to marry Akiba and live in
that little cabin which stands on the summit of the mountain, and in
which he lives.'"

"Kolba Sabua was a proud man, and his heart was hard. He became very
angry with his daughter, the beautiful Rachel, and forbade her to
think of that young man."

"But the beautiful Rachel left the high palace, and taking with her
only her dark eyes, which shone like big diamond