"You are foolish," said Saul. "Are Kamionker and Kalman my sons or my
daughters' husbands? They would not listen to me."

"If they do not listen, zeide," exclaimed Meir "denounce them before
the owner of Kamionka or before the law."

Saul looked at his grandson with flaming eyes.

"Your advice is that of a foolish boy. Would you have your old
grandfather turn informer, and bring calamity upon his own brethren?"

He wanted to say something more, but the door opened to admit several
visitors; they were Israelites from the country, respectable
merchants or farmers from the neighbouring estates, arrived for the
great fair. Saul half-rose to welcome his guests, who quickly
stepping up to him, pressed his hand in hearty greeting, and
explained that it was not so much business as the desire to see the
wise and honoured Saul which had brought them to town. Saul answered
with an equally polite speech, and asked them to be seated round the
table, and without leaving his own seat on the sofa clapped his bony
hands. At the signal a buxom servant girl came in with glasses of
steaming tea, which filled the whole room with its subtle aroma. The
guests thanked him smilingly, and then began a lively conversation
about familiar subjects.

Meir saw that he would have no further opportunity of seeing his
grandfather alone, and quickly left the room and went into the
kitchen. This also was full of visitors, but of a different class
from those in the pitting-room. Upon the benches by the wall sat some
fifteen men in old worn-out garments; and Sarah, Saul's daughter, and
Raphael's wife, Saul's daughter-in-law, conversed with them and
offered tea or mead and other refreshments.

The men responded gaily, if somewhat timidly, and accepted the
refreshments with humble thanks. Most of them were inn-keepers, dairy
farmers, or small tradesmen from the country. Their dark, lean faces
and rough hands betrayed poverty and hard work. The smallest expense
for food during their stay in town would have made a difference to
them. They went, therefore, straight to Ezofowich's house, the doors
of which were always hospitably open on such days, as had been the
custom of the family for hundreds of years.

The two women in their silk gowns and bright caps flitted to and fro
between the huge fireplace and the grateful guests. Outside the house
there was another class of visitors. Those were the very poorest, who
had not come to buy or to sell at the fa