, still smiling. "Thank
you, children! Thank you!"

"Sit down, children, sit down." he said after a pause. "I will tell you
some more stories."

"It will tire you, Reb Shloimeh," said a workman. "When you are
better----"

"Sit down, sit down!" said Reb Shloimeh, impatiently. "That's _my_
business!"

The workmen exchanged glances with the teachers and the teachers signed
to them _not_ to sit down.

"Not to-day, Reb Shloimeh, another time, when you--"

"Sit down, sit down!" interrupted Reb Shloimeh, "Do me the pleasure!"

Once more the workmen exchanged looks with the teachers, and, at a sign
from them, they sat down.

Reb Shloimeh began telling them the long story of the human race, he
spoke with ardor, and it was long since his voice had sounded as it
sounded then.

He spoke for a long, long time.

They interrupted him two or three times, and reminded him that it was
bad for him to talk so much. But he only signified with a gesture that
they were to let him alone.

"I am getting better," he said, and went on.

At length the workmen rose from their seats.

"Let us go, Reb Shloimeh. It's getting late for us," they begged.

"True, true," he replied, "but to-morrow, do you hear? Look here,
children, to-morrow!" he said, giving them his hand.

The workmen promised to come. They moved away a few steps, and then Reb
Shloimeh called them back.

"And the others?" he inquired feebly, as though he were ashamed of
asking.

"They were lazy, they wouldn't come," was the reply.

"Well, well," he said, in a tone that meant "Well, well, I know, you
needn't say any more, but look here, to-morrow!"

"Now I am well again," he whispered as the workmen went out. He could
scarcely move a limb, but he was very cheerful, looked at every one with
a happy smile, and his eyes shone.

"Now I am well," he whispered when they had been obliged to put him into
bed and cover him up. "Now I am well," he repeated, feeling the while
that his head was strangely heavy, his heart faint, and that he was very
poorly. Before many minutes he had fallen into a state of
unconsciousness.

A dreadful, heartbreaking cry recalled him to himself. He opened his
eyes. The room was full of people. In many eyes were tears.

"Soon, then," he thought, and began to remember something.

"What o'clock is it?" he asked of the person who stood beside him.

"Five."

"They stop work at nine," he whispered to himself, and called one of the
teachers