en the sun dropt out of
sight on the further side of Mazepevke, Reb Lebish said to himself,
"Got him!" and at once came away to compare his watch with the clocks.
When he came in to us, he never gave us a "good evening," only glanced
up at the clock on the wall, then at his watch, then at the almanac, and
was gone!

But it happened one day that when Reb Lebish came in to compare our
clock with the almanac, he gave a shout:

"Sim-cheh! Make haste! Where are you?"

My father came running in terror.

"Ha, what has happened, Reb Lebish?"

"Wretch, you dare to ask?" and Reb Lebish held his watch under my
father's nose, pointed at our clock, and shouted again, like a man with
a trodden toe:

"Sim-cheh! Why don't you speak? It is a minute and a half ahead of the
time! Throw it away!"

My father was vexed. What did Reb Lebish mean by telling him to throw
away his clock?

"Who is to prove," said he, "that my clock is a minute and a half fast?
Perhaps it is the other way about, and your watch is a minute and a half
slow? Who is to tell?"

Reb Lebish stared at him as though he had said that it was possible to
have three days of New Moon, or that the Seventeenth of Tammuz might
possibly fall on the Eve of Passover, or made some other such wild
remark, enough, if one really took it in, to give one an apoplectic fit.
Reb Lebish said never a word, he gave a deep sigh, turned away without
wishing us "good evening," slammed the door, and was gone. But no one
minded much, because the whole town knew Reb Lebish for a person who
was never satisfied with anything: he would tell you of the best cantor
that he was a dummy, a log; of the cleverest man, that he was a
lumbering animal; of the most appropriate match, that it was as crooked
as an oven rake; and of the most apt simile, that it was as applicable
as a pea to the wall. Such a man was Reb Lebish.

But let me return to our clock. I tell you, that _was_ a clock! You
could hear it strike three rooms away: Bom! bom! bom! Half the town went
by it, to recite the Midnight Prayers, to get up early for Seliches
during the week before New Year and on the ten Solemn Days, to bake the
Sabbath loaves on Fridays, to bless the candles on Friday evening. They
lighted the fire by it on Saturday evening, they salted the meat, and so
all the other things pertaining to Judaism. In fact, our clock was the
town clock. The poor thing served us faithfully, and never tried
stopping even for a tim