Page:Hebrew tales; selected and translated from the writings of the ancient Hebrew sages (1917).djvu/71

prohibited goods in the very cave, as a place least likely to be searched, and went on: intending to fetch them away at a convenient opportunity. In the mean time the old man slept very soundly, little dreaming of what was going forward. Early next morning he awoke, and finding himself in so melancholy a place, surrounded by the dead, and assailed by their putrid smell, he was at first greatly terrified and alarmed; but the same light which exhibited his gloomy situation, discovered to him the rich store that was deposited near him. The sight of so unexpected a treasure filled him with joy. He no longer thought of the dead, nor of the grave; but opening one bottle after the other, and emptying them of their delicious contents, he became as drunk as ever. In this situation his sons found him. Overwhelmed with grief and disappointment, they exclaimed, "Alas! all our endeavors are vain—the disease is incurable; but he is our father;—it is our duty to hide his infirmities. Let us take him home, supply him in a private chamber with as much as he can drink, that he may no longer be exposed to public scorn." This they did, convinced that ill habits, once contracted, are seldom relinquished; and that confirmed vice will not quit its unfortunate possessor, even at the brink of the grave.

Leviticus Rabba, § XII; Yalkut to Proverbs, § 960.