There was no more tobacco in the pipe, and the old man lost his
speech. That was the way of Samuel the Beadle; he could tell his
story only from behind the smoke of his pipe, when he did not see
his hearers, nor his hearers saw him. In that way he found it easy
to put his boyhood before his mind's eye and conjure up the
reminiscences of those days. Meanwhile the horses had stopped, and
let us know that a high and steep hill was ahead of us, and that it
was our turn to trudge through the mud. We had to submit to the
will of the animals, and we dismounted.







III

After tramping a while alongside the coach, the old man lit his
pipe, emitted a cloud of smoke, and continued:--



I do not know what happened then. I cannot tell who caught me, nor
the place I was taken to. I must have been in a trance all the
while.

When I awoke, I found myself surrounded by a flock of sheep, in a
meadow near the woods. Near me was my brother Solomon; but I hardly
recognized him. He wore peasant clothes: a linen shirt turned out