to talk to your mother."

Beile put away her work and walked out into the lane.

"Rejoice with me, Jentele," said the delighted husband, as he rubbed his
shrivelled hands. "Beile is a _kalle_; she will marry to-morrow."

"Has anybody fallen in love with her?" asked the mother.

"No; but she will marry all the same."

"Well, speak out, man! You kill one with suspense."

"Do you know Reb Bensef, our _parnas_?"

"Yes; but what has he to do with our Beile?"

"Reb Bensef being very much distressed by the death of Rabbi Jeiteles,
went to Tchernigof to ask counsel of the _bal-shem_ and has just
returned."

"Well, what did the wise man advise?" asked Jentele, burning with
impatience, while her partially washed baby lay kicking in her arms.

"Listen, I am coming to that," answered Itzig, with provoking slowness.
"He said that if a poor man would marry an equally poor girl, under a
_chuppe_ erected in the cemetery between two newly made graves, God's
anger would be appeased and the scourge would end. To-day Bensef sought
me out. 'Itzig,' he said, 'you have a daughter. I know a husband for
her. I will give an outfit to both bride and groom and provide them with
money to last a year, if you will consent to their marrying in the
cemetery.' What do you think of it?"

"Who is the young man?" queried Jentele, her face expressing neither
pleasure nor pain.

"You know the _jeschiva_ student, Kahn?"

"He is poor, very poor, indeed."

"What is that to us? Reb Bensef will provide clothing and money for a
whole year."

"And when that is all gone?" queried his wife, resuming operations upon
the baby.

"Then God will provide. Did we have more when we married?"

"It is an opportunity of a life-time," mused Jentele, looking at her
parched and yellow better-half. "Do as you think best."

Armed with the support of his wife and without consulting his daughter,
whose voice in a matter of such minor importance seemed to him
unnecessary, Itzig hastened to Bensef's house and expressed his consent
to the arrangement. Together the worthies went to the synagogue, where
the unsuspecting Kahn was engaged in prayer. A few words sufficed to
explain the situation. Kahn looked timidly at Bensef, then upon the
ground; finally, he shrugged his shoulders and signified his readiness
to be led to the altar. It mattered not to him what disposition they
made of him. He was poor and without prospects and could never hope to
support a wife by his