nses, and
forget all his arguments and his reasonings.

At last he arrived at the president's house.

"He lives on the first floor." Another surprise! Reb Nochumtzi was
unused to stairs. There was no storied house in all Pumpian! But when
you must, you must! One way and another he managed to arrive at the
first-floor landing, where he opened the door, and said, all in one
breath:

"I am the Pumpian Rav, and have something to say to the president."

The president, a handsome old man, very busy just then with some
merchants who had come on business, stood up, greeted him politely, and
opening the door of the reception-room said to him:

"Please, Rabbi, come in here and wait a little. I shall soon have
finished, and then I will come to you here."

Expensive furniture, large mirrors, pictures, softly upholstered chairs,
tables, cupboards with shelves full of great silver candlesticks, cups,
knives and forks, a beautiful lamp, and many other small objects, all
of solid silver, wardrobes with carving in different designs; then,
painted walls, a great silver chandelier decorated with cut glass,
fascinating to behold! Reb Nochumtzi actually had tears in his eyes, "To
think of anyone's being so unfortunate--and to have to bear it!"

"What can I do for you, Pumpian Rav?" inquired the president.

And Reb Nochumtzi, overcome by amazement and enthusiasm, nearly shouted:

"You are so unfortunate!"

The president stared at him, shrugged his shoulders, and was silent.

Then Reb Nochumtzi laid his whole plan before him, the object of his
coming.

"I will be frank with you," he said in concluding his long speech, "I
had no idea of the extent of the misfortune! To the rescue, men, save
yourselves! Take it to heart, think of what it means to have houses like
these, and all these riches--it is a most terrible misfortune! Now I see
what a reform of the whole world my plan amounts to, what deliverance it
will bring to all men!"

The president looked him straight in the face: he saw the man was not
mad, but that he had the limited horizon of one born and bred in a small
provincial town and in the atmosphere of the house-of-study.

He also saw that it would be impossible to convince him by proofs that
his idea was a mistaken one; for a little while he pitied him in
silence, then he hit upon an expedient, and said:

"You are quite right, Rabbi! Your plan is really a very good one. But I
am only one of many, Wilna is full of suc