and bewail and lament their transgressions. And he, Berel,
cannot even weep, he is a fallen one, lost forever--he is condemned to
wander, to roam everlastingly among the graves.

By degrees, however, he called to mind where he was, and collected his
wits.

Only then he remembered his fearful dream.

"No," he decided within himself, "I have lived till now without the
hundred rubles, and I will continue to live without them. If the Lord of
the Universe wishes to help me, he will do so without them too. My soul
and my portion of the world-to-come are dearer to me. Only let Moisheh
Chalfon come in to pray, I will tell him the whole truth and avert
misfortune."

This decision gave him courage, he washed his hands, and sat down again
to the Psalms. Every few minutes he glanced at the window, to see if it
were not beginning to dawn, and if Reb Moisheh Chalfon were not coming
along to Shool.

The day broke.

With the first sunbeams Berel's fears and terrors began little by little
to dissipate and diminish. His resolve to restore the hundred rubles
weakened considerably.

"If I don't confess," thought Berel, wrestling in spirit with
temptation, "I risk my world-to-come.... If I do confess, what will my
Chantzeh-Leah say to it? He writes, either the wedding takes place, or
the contract is dissolved! And what shall I do, when his father gets to
hear about it? There will be a stain on my character, the marriage
contract will be annulled, and I shall be left ... without my good name
and ... with my ugly old maid....

"What is to be done? Help! What is to be done?"

The people began to gather in the Shool. The reader of the Morning
Service intoned "He is Lord of the Universe" to the special Yom Kippur
tune, a few householders and young men supported him, and Berel heard
through it all only, Help! What is to be done?

And suddenly he beheld Moisheh Chalfon.

Berel quickly rose from his place, he wanted to make a rush at Moisheh
Chalfon. But after all he remained where he was, and sat down again.

"I must first think it over, and discuss it with my Chantzeh-Leah," was
Berel's decision.

* * * * *

Berel stood up to pray with the congregation. He was again wishful to
pray with fervor, to collect his thoughts, and attend to the meaning of
the words, but try as he would, he couldn't! Quite other things came
into his head: a dream, a fair, a horse, Moisheh Chalfon, Chantzeh-Leah,
oats, bar