nterest, on weekly payment, and to pay for goods at once. The
interest gradually ate up the capital with the gains. The creditors took
what they could lay hands on, and still her husband remained in their
debt.

He could not get over this, and fell ill.

The whole bundle of trouble fell upon her: the burden of a livelihood,
the children, the sick man, everything, everything, on her.

But she did not lose heart.

"God will help, _he_ will soon get well, and will surely find some work.
God will not desert us," so she reflected, and meantime she was not
sitting idle.

The very difficulty of her position roused her courage, and gave her
strength.

She sold her small store of jewelry, and set up a little shop.

Three years have passed since then.

However it may be, God has not abandoned her, and however bitter and
sour the struggle for Parnosseh may have been, she had her bit of bread.
Only his health did not return, he grew daily weaker and worse.

She glanced at her sick husband, at his pale, emaciated face, and tears
fell from her eyes.

During the week she has no time to think how unhappy she is. Parnosseh,
housework, attendance on the children and the sick man--these things
take up all her time and thought. She is glad when it comes to bedtime,
and she can fall, dead tired, onto her bed.

But on Sabbath, the day of rest, she has time to think over her hard lot
and all her misery and to cry herself out.

"When will there be an end of my troubles and suffering?" she asked
herself, and could give no answer whatever to the question beyond
despairing tears. She saw no ray of hope lighting her future, only a
great, wide, shoreless sea of trouble.

It flashed across her:

"When he dies, things will be easier."

But the thought of his death only increased her apprehension.

It brought with it before her eyes the dreadful words: widow, orphans,
poor little fatherless children....

These alarmed her more than her present distress.

How can children grow up without a father? Now, even though he's ill, he
keeps an eye on them, tells them to say their prayers and to study. Who
is to watch over them if he dies?

"Don't punish me, Lord of the World, for my bad thought," she begged
with her whole heart. "I will take it upon myself to suffer and trouble
for all, only don't let him die, don't let me be called by the bitter
name of widow, don't let my children be called orphans!"

* * *