without.

"Peace! Peace!" he cried, "and shame! shame! Remember the doom of him
that shall curse the high priest of the Lord."

This he spoke in a voice that shook with wrath. Then suddenly, his voice
failing him, he said in a broken whisper, "My good people, what is this?
Your servant is grown old in your service. Sixty and odd years he has
shared your sorrows and your burdens. What has he done this day that
your women should lift up their voices against him?"

But, in awe of his white head in the moonlight, the rabble that stood in
the darkness were silent and made no answer. Then he staggered back, and
Israel helped him into his house, and Ruth did what she could to compose
him. But he was woefully shaken, and that night he died.

When the Rabbi's death became known in the morning, the Jews whispered,
"It is the first-fruits!" and the Moors touched their foreheads and
murmured "It is written!"



CHAPTER II

THE BIRTH OF NAOMI


Israel paid no heed to Jew or Moor, but in due time he set about the
building of a house for himself and for Ruth, that they might live in
comfort many years together. In the south-east corner of the Mellah