one side, closing one eye, and supporting his cheek
with his hand, his face assumed a squeamish, weeping expression, and he
looked down to the street.

On the narrow street, going uphill, an enormous crowd was moving forward
in disorder, covered with dust and shouting uninterruptedly. In the
middle of the crowd walked the criminals, bending down under the weight
of their crosses, and over them the scourges of the Roman soldiers were
wriggling about like black snakes. One of the men, he of the long light
hair, in a torn blood-stained cloak, stumbled over a stone which was
thrown under his feet, and he fell. The shouting grew louder, and the
crowd, like coloured sea water, closed in about the man on the ground.
Ben-Tovit suddenly shuddered for pain; he felt as though some one had
pierced a red-hot needle into his tooth and turned it there; he groaned
and walked away from the parapet, angry and squeamishly indifferent.

"How they are shouting!" he said enviously, picturing to himself their
wide-open mouths with strong, healthy teeth, and how he himself would
have shouted if he had been well. This intensified his toothache, and he
shook his muffled head frequently, and roared: "Moo-Moo...."

"They say that He restored sight to the blind," said his wife,
who remained standing at the parapet, and she threw down a little
cobblestone near the place where Jesus, lifted by the whips, was moving
slowly.

"Of course, of course! He should have cured my toothache," replied
Ben-Tovit ironically, and he added bitterly with irritation: "What dust
they have kicked up! Like a herd of cattle! They should all be driven
away with a stick! Take me down, Sarah!"

The wife proved to be right. The spectacle had diverted Ben-Tovit
slightly--perhaps it was the rats' litter that had helped after all--he
succeeded in falling asleep. When he awoke, his toothache had passed
almost entirely, and only a little inflammation had formed over his
right jaw. His wife told him that it was not noticeable at all, but
Ben-Tovit smiled cunningly--he knew how kind-hearted his wife was and
how fond she was of telling him pleasant things.

Samuel, the tanner, a neighbour of Ben-Tovit's, came in, and Ben-Tovit
led him to see the new little donkey and listened proudly to the warm
praises for himself and his animal.

Then, at the request of the curious Sarah, the three went to Golgotha to
see the people who had been crucified. On the way Ben-Tovit told Samuel
i