which Rabbi Baer had made his centre, was far nearer than the forest
where the Master, remote and inaccessible, retired to meditate after
his missionary wanderings; nay, that my footsteps must needs pass
through this Mizricz, the political stronghold of Chassidism. This
discovery did not displease me, for I felt that thus I should reach
the Master better prepared. In my impatience I could scarcely wait for
the roads to become passable, and it was still the skirt of winter
when, with a light heart and a wild hope, I set my face for the wild
ravines of Severia and the dreary steppes of the Ukraine. Very soon I
came into parts where the question of the Chassidim was alive and
burning, and indeed into towns where it had a greater living interest
than the quarrel of the amulets. And in these regions the rumor of the
Baal Shem began to thicken. There was not a village of log-houses but
buzzed with its own miracle. Everywhere did I hear of healings of the
sick and driving out of demons and summoning of spirits, and the face
of the Master shining.

Of these strange stories I will set down but two. The Master and his
retinue were riding on a journey, and came to a strange road. His
disciples did not know the way, and the party went astray and wandered
about till Wednesday night, when they put up at an inn. In the morning
the host asked who they were.

"I am a wandering preacher," replied the Baal Shem. "And I wish to get
to the capital before the Sabbath, for I have heard that the richest
man in the town is marrying there on the Friday, and perchance I may
preach at the wedding."

"That thou wilt never do," said the innkeeper, "for the capital is a
week's journey."

The Master smiled. "Our horses are good," he said.

The innkeeper shook his head: "Impossible, unless you fly through the
air," he said. But, presently remembering that he himself had to go
some leagues on the road to the capital, he begged permission to join
the party, which was cheerfully given.

The Master then retired to say his morning prayers, and gave orders
for breakfast and dinner.

"But why art thou delaying?" inquired the innkeeper. "How can you
arrive for Sabbath?"

The Baal Shem did not, however, abate one jot of his prayers, and it
was not till eve that they set out. All through the night they
travelled, and in the morning the innkeeper found himself, to his
confusion, not where he had reckoned to part with the others, but in
the environs of