Shemad, God forbid, that he is going!"

At the mention of conversion, Rebekah burst into tears, for Samuel
had unintentionally touched her sore spot: there were rumors in the
town that her family was not without blemish.

"Now that you are crying," exclaimed Samuel, thoroughly angry, "you
are not only hard-headed, but also silly, simply silly! 'Long of
hair but short of sense.' To cry and cry, and not know wherefore!"
With this Samuel turned towards us, and began to plead his case.

"Have you ever seen such a cry-baby? Five times in her life she
filled the world with a hue and cry, when she bore me a child, and
every time it was but an empty bubble: five girls she brought me!
Then, beginning with the sixth birth, she was fortunate enough to
get boys, the real thing. Three sons she gave me as my old age was
approaching. And now, when she ought to thank Heaven for having
been found worthy of raising a soldier for the army, she cries!
Think of it--your son enters the army a free man; but I, in my
time,--well, well, I was taken by force when a mere youngster!"

Here the old man settled his account with the bottle, and took leave
of his crying wife and his good neighbors, and in the company of his
son mounted the coach waiting outside, ready to go to H., the
capital of the district, where the recruits had to report.

By special good fortune I was going to H. by the same coach, and so
I came to hear the story of old Samuel's life from the beginning
till that day.