eams. My
good friend, Samuel Leggett, although a Christian, has seen my vision,
and has aided me with his sympathy--and his gold." His dream-filled
eyes actually twinkled and now he spoke simply with no thought of a
vast audience to listen. "I am grateful for his sympathy, but his
gold--with my own private fortune--helped me even more. With it I have
purchased a great tract of land on the Niagara River for the site of
our Jewish colony. Yes," he repeated, proudly, "I have purchased over
two thousand acres of land on Grand Island. Persecuted Jews from all
over the world will plant their farms there. And some day it will be
one of the greatest commercial centers of the world, as well as a
farming colony, for it lies close to the Great Lakes and opposite the
new Erie Canal, through which our vessels loaded with the produce of
our farms will sail to feed the nations."

He paused for breath and Hushiel nodded, understanding but little the
reason of his hosts' enthusiasm, but at least grasping the fact that
the city of refuge of which his father had dreamed so long was about
to be built.

"And what will you call your city?" he ventured.

"Ararat," answered the founder. "Some of my friends have tried to
persuade me to name it after myself; this I would not do, but since I
would have future generations know of my share in the building of the
city, I shall call it Ararat, which they may interpret as the city of
Noah. But above all would I remind all that hear its name that it is a
city of refuge, even as the mountain Ararat was a place of safety
after the flood which destroyed the earth in the days of Noah of old.
Our people, tossed for so long upon the seas of bitterness and hatred,
will rest here as the ark rested upon the mountain Ararat when the
waters of the flood subsided."

"But will only Jews be welcome there?"

"It will be as open as Abraham's tent to every wanderer who seeks
shelter there," replied Mordecai Noah with a magnificent gesture.
"Especially to our brethren, the Indians. For I firmly believe," he
went on, not pausing to think that the boy from across the seas could
not possibly understand him, "I firmly believe that the red men are
descended from the lost tribes of Israel and are ready to extend to us
the hand of brotherhood and forsake their own gods for the God of our
fathers. You have never seen our Indian brothers?" Hushiel shook his
head, but Peninah, thoroughly worn out by her journey and the long