523 ASCH
author of the book "Light of the Torah," is a well- known scholar, and there one has a chance of getting to be something decent."
His words entirely reassured her, she felt a certain happiness and exaltation, because he was her child, because she was the mother of such a child, such a son, and because, were it not for her, Yitzchokel would not be there at all. At the same time her heart pained her. and she grew sad.
Presently she remembered her husband, and burst out crying:
"If only he had lived, if only he could have had this consolation !" she sobbed.
Yitzchokel minded his book.
That night Taube could not sleep, for at the thought of Yitzchokel's departure the heart ached within her.
And she dreamt, as she lay in bed, that some great Rabbis with tall fur caps and long earlocks came in and took her Yitzchokel away from her; her Yitzchokel was wearing a fur cap and locks like theirs, and he held a large book, and he went far away with the Rabbis, and she stood and gazed after him, not knowing, should she rejoice or weep.
Next morning she woke late. Yitzchokel had already gone to his studies. She hastened to dress the children, and hurried to the market-place. At her stall she fell athinking, and fancied she was sitting beside her son, who was a Rabbi in a large town; there he sits in shoes and socks, a great fur cap on his head, and looks into a huge book. She sits at his right hand knitting a
