not withstand the wild-fire of her eye, nor the charm of her merry
talk, nor the wonderful attraction of her whole person. At the same
time there was not a trace of deviltry about her: it was simply an
attraction which I could not resist. And when she laid her soft
hand on me, I bent under it, and gave myself up entirely. And she
did what she wanted: where buttons were missing, she sewed them on;
and where a patch was needed, she put it in. She was a little
mother to me. She used to bring me all kinds of delicacies and
order me to eat them; and I could not disobey her. In short, she
made me forget Jacob and his teachings. But the moment I met Jacob
I forgot Marusya's charms, and reminded myself that it was sinful to
accept favors in exile. Then I would repent of my past actions from
the very depths of my heart--till I again was face to face with
Marusya. I was between the hammer and the anvil.

My meetings with Jacob were regular and frequent. After what
according to Jacob's calendar was the Ninth of Av, we met nightly in
the valley on Peter's estate, till a disagreement broke out among
us. I would not permit the cattle of the whole neighborhood to
browse on the estate of my patron, and Simeon and Reuben would not
agree to let my patron's horses be brought to the meadows of their
patrons. Our congregation nearly broke up. But here Jacob
intervened with his expert decision.

"Boys," said he, "you must know that 'going out for the night' is
really a form of stealing. True, we do not steal for our own
benefit. Yet, as long as we have a hand in it, we must manage it in
a fair way. So let us figure out how many horses every one of our
patrons possesses. And let us arrange the nights according to the
number of horses each of the patrons has. According to this