ng--it's nothing
more!"

"God will help!" was the comment of the Hostre saint. A whole year went
by, and Ezrielk's voice neither broke nor returned to him. The Hostre
Chassidim assembled in the house of Elkoneh the butcher to consider and
take counsel as to what Ezrielk should take to in order to earn a
livelihood for wife and children. They thought it over a long, long
time, talked and gave their several opinions, till they hit upon this:
Ezrielk had still one hundred and fifty rubles in store--let him spend
one hundred rubles on a house in Kabtzonivke, and begin to traffic with
the remainder.

Thus Ezrielk became a trader. He began driving to fairs, and traded in
anything and everything capable of being bought or sold.

Six months were not over before Ezrielk was out of pocket. He mortgaged
his property, and with the money thus obtained he opened a grocery shop
for Channehle. He himself (nothing satisfies a Jew!) started to drive
about in the neighborhood, to collect the contributions subscribed for
the maintenance of the Hostre Rebbe, long life to him!

Ezrielk was five months on the road, and when, torn, worn, and
penniless, he returned home, he found Channehle brought to bed of her
fourth child, and the shop bare of ware and equally without a groschen.
But Ezrielk was now something of a trader, and is there any strait in
which a Jewish trader has not found himself? Ezrielk had soon disposed
of the whole of his property, paid his debts, rented a larger lodging,
and started trading in several new and more ambitious lines: he pickled
gherkins, cabbages, and pumpkins, made beet soup, both red and white,
and offered them for sale, and so on. It was Channehle again who had to
carry on most of the business, but, then, Ezrielk did not sit with his
hands in his pockets. Toward Passover he had Shmooreh Matzes; he baked
and sold them to the richest householders in Kamenivke, and before the
Solemn Days he, as an expert, tried and recommended cantors and
prayer-leaders for the Kamenivke Shools. When it came to Tabernacles,
he trafficked in citrons and "palms."

For three years Ezrielk and his Channehle struggled at their trades,
working themselves nearly to death (of Zion's enemies be it spoken!),
till, with the help of Heaven, they came to be twenty years old.

By this time Ezrielk and Channehle were the parents of four living and
two dead children. Channehle, the once so lovely Channehle, looked like
a beaten Hoshanah,