eat of our brow shall we earn our bread. Thou
who art the daughter of a great Rabbi, and reared in every luxury,
hast thou courage to face this future with me?"

"I ask no better," she replied. "I had faith in my father's judgment,
and now am I rewarded."

The Baal Shem's voice trembled with tenderness. "God bless thee," he
said. "Our sufferings shall be but for a time."

After the wedding Rabbi Gershon wished to instruct his new
brother-in-law, who had, of course, taken up his abode in his house.
But the Baal Shem feigned to be difficult of understanding, and at
length, in despair, the Judge went stormily to his sister and cried
out: "See how we are shamed and disgraced through thy husband, who
argues ignorantly against our most renowned teachers. I cannot endure
the dishonor any longer. Look thou, sister mine, I give thee the
alternative--either divorce this ignoramus or let me buy thee a horse
and cart and send you both packing from the place."

"We will go," she said simply.

They jogged along in their cart till they came far from Jews and
remote even from men. And there in a lonely spot, on one of the spurs
of the Carpathian Mountains, honeycombed by caves and thick with
trees, the couple made their home. Here Israel gave himself up to
prayer and contemplation. For his livelihood he dug lime in the
ravines, and his wife took it in the horse and cart, and sold it in
the nearest town, bringing back flour. When the Baal Shem was not
fasting, which was rarely, he mixed this flour with water and earth,
and baked it in the sun. That was his only fare. What else needed
he--he, whose greatest joy was to make holy ablutions in the mountain
waters, or to climb the summits of the mountains and to wander about
wrapt in the thought of God? Once the robbers who lurked in the caves
saw him approaching a precipice, his ecstatic gaze heavenwards. They
halloed to him, but his ears were lent to the celestial harmonies.
Then they held their breath, waiting for him to be dashed to pieces.
But the opposite mountain came to him. And then the two mountains
separated, re-uniting again for his return. After this the robbers
revered him as a holy man, and they, too, brought him their disputes.
And the Baal Shem did not refuse the office,--"For," said he, "even
amid the unjust, justice must rule." But one of the gang whom he had
decided against sought to slay him as he slept. An invisible hand held
back the axe as it was raised to strik