o had begun rocking and swaying anew. One of them pushed a
prayer-book towards him, with great black letters, which hopped and
fluttered to Feivke's eyes like so many little black birds.

He shook visibly, and the men looked at him in silence: "Nu-nu, nu-nu!"
He remained for some time squeezed against the prayer-book, hemmed in by
the tall, strange men in robes swaying and praying over his head. A cold
perspiration broke out over him, and when at last he freed himself, he
felt very tired and weak. Having found his way to a corner close to his
father, he fell asleep on the floor.

There he had a strange dream. He dreamt that he was a tree, growing like
any other tree in a wood, and that he saw Anishka coming along with
blood on his face, in one hand his long stick, and in the other a
stone--and Feivke recognized the stone with which he had hit the
crucifix. And Anishka kept turning his head and making signs to some one
with his long stick, calling out to him that here was Feivke. Feivke
looked hard, and there in the depths of the wood was God Himself, white
all over, like freshly-fallen snow. And God suddenly grew ever so tall,
and looked down at Feivke. Feivke felt God looking at him, but he could
not see God, because there was a mist before his eyes. And Anishka came
nearer and nearer with the stone in his hand. Feivke shook, and cold
perspiration oozed out all over him. He wanted to run away, but he
seemed to be growing there like a tree, like all the other trees of the
wood.

Feivke awoke on the floor, amid sleeping men, and the first thing he saw
was a tall, barefoot person all in white, standing over the sleepers
with something in his hand. This tall, white figure sank slowly onto its
knees, and, bending silently over Mattes the smith, who lay snoring
with the rest, it deliberately put a bottle to his nose. Mattes gave a
squeal, and sat up hastily.

"Ha, who is it?" he asked in alarm.

It was the young man from town, the prayer-leader, with a bottle of
strong smelling-salts.

"It is I," he said with a _degage_ air, and smiled. "Never mind, it will
do you good! You are fasting, and there is an express law in the Chayye
Odom on the subject."

"But why me?" complained Mattes, blinking at him reproachfully. "What
have I done to you?"

Day was about to dawn. The air in the room had cooled down; the
soul-lights were still playing in the dark, dewy window-panes. A few of
the men bedded in the hay on the floor we