he nails?" asked Hershke.

"Nails can be got. Have you the fir-boughs?" asked Moshe.

"Somehow, you are a little too so-so today," said Hershke.

"A little too what?" asked Moshe. They looked each other straight in the
eyes, and both burst out laughing.

* * *

When Hershke Mamtzes brought the first few boards and beams, Moshe said
that, please God, it would be a Tabernacle for once. I wondered how he
was going to make a Tabernacle out of the few boards and beams. I begged
of my mother to let me stand by whilst Moshe was working. And Moshe not
only let me stand by him, but even let me be his assistant. I was to
hand him what he wanted, and hold things for him.

Of course this put me into the seventh heaven of delight. Was it a
trifle to help build the Tabernacle? I was of great assistance to Moshe.
I moved my lips when he hammered; went for meals when he went; shouted
at the other children not to hinder us; handed Moshe the hammer when he
wanted the chisel, and the pincers when he wanted a nail. Any other man
would have thrown the hammer or pincers at my head for such help, but
Moshe-for-once had no temper. No one had ever had the privilege of
seeing him angry.

"Anger is a sinful thing. It does as little good as any sin."

And because I was greatly absorbed in the work, I did not notice how and
by what miracle the Tabernacle came into being.

"Come and see the Tabernacle we have built," I said to father, and
dragged him out of the house by the tails of his coat. My father was
delighted with our work. He looked at Moshe with a smile, and said,
pointing to me:

"Had you at any rate a little help from him?"

"It was a help, for once," replied Moshe, looking up at the roof of the
Tabernacle with anxious eyes.

"If only our Hershke brings us the fir-boughs, it will be a Tabernacle
for once."

Hershke Mamtzes worried us about the fir-boughs. He put off going for
them from day to day. The day before the Festival he went off and
brought back a cart-load of thin sticks, a sort of weeds, such as grow
on the banks of the river. And we began to cover the Tabernacle. That is
to say, Moshe did the work, and I helped him by driving off the goats
which had gathered around the fir-boughs, as if they were something
worth while. I do not know what taste they found in the bitter green
stalks.

Because the house stood alone, in the middle of the street, there was no
getting rid of the goats. If you drove one off another c