instruct the boy in the elements of
the Russian and German languages.

While the old man did not for a moment close his eyes to the perils
which his pupil invited by his pursuit of knowledge; while he did not
conceal from himself the fact that his own position would be endangered
if the nature of his teachings was suspected, he was happy in the
thought of having before him a youthful mind, brave to seek truth. Rabbi
Jeiteles was a learned man; his youth had been spent in travel. He had
seen much and read more, and even in the bigoted community in which he
lived he kept abreast of the knowledge of the times.

The first lesson was mastered then and there. It was a hard and tedious
task and progress was necessarily slow, but Mendel possessed two great
essentials to progress, indomitable perseverance and an active
intellect, and his teacher displayed the painstaking care and patience
with which love for his pupil inspired him.

Day by day, Mendel added to his store of knowledge. He was still the
most industrious Talmud scholar of the college; his remarkable aptitude
and zeal for the studies of his fathers was in nowise diminished; but
when the hours at the _jeschiva_ were at an end, instead of returning to
his uncle's home, or of spending his time upon the streets with his
boisterous playmates, he would walk with Rabbi Jeiteles in the fields,
or remain closeted with him, pursuing his investigations in new fields
of knowledge. Nor were his labors at an end when he had retired to his
bed-room. In the still hours of the night, when every noise was hushed
and he deemed himself safe from intrusion, he would rise, silently open
his closet for his carefully concealed volume and creep back to bed.
Then, by the aid of secretly purloined candle ends, he would read hour
after hour, and often the dawn found him still at his books.

CHAPTER XIII.

PERSECUTIONS IN TOGAROG.

The flight of time brings us to the year 1855--the epoch of the Crimean
War.

Ever since the days when Bonaparte was driven from burning Moscow, there
was a popular belief that the Russian soldiery was superior to that of
the western nations. The Emperor Nicholas was a thorough soldier as well
as a tyrant, possessing an enormous and well-equipped army, which he
deemed invincible. This boasted superiority was now to be tested. For
years the Russians had been groaning under heavy taxes. During this
period they had been finding fault with their central go