making one’s master wiser, fixing attention upon his discourse, and reporting a thing in the name of him who said it.  So thou hast learnt.  Whosoever reports a thing in the name of him that said it brings deliverance into the world, as it is said—­And Esther told the King in the name of Mordecai.”—­(Ethics of the Fathers, Singer’s translation.)

Moses Ansell only occasionally worshipped at the synagogue of “The Sons of the Covenant,” for it was too near to make attendance a Mitzvah, pleasing in the sight of Heaven.  It was like having the prayer-quorum brought to you, instead of your going to it.  The pious Jew must speed to Shool to show his eagerness and return slowly, as with reluctant feet, lest Satan draw the attention of the Holy One to the laches of His chosen people.  It was not easy to express these varying emotions on a few nights of stairs, and so Moses went farther afield, in subtle minutiae like this Moses was facile princeps, being as Wellhausen puts it of the virtuosi of religion.  If he put on his right stocking (or rather foot lappet, for he did not wear stockings) first, he made amends by putting on the left boot first, and if he had lace-up boots, then the boot put on second would have a compensatory precedence in the lacing.  Thus was the divine principle of justice symbolized even in these small matters.

Moses was a great man in several of the more distant Chevras, among which he distributed the privilege of his presence.  It was only when by accident the times of service did not coincide that Moses favored the “Sons of the Covenant,” putting in an appearance either at the commencement or the fag end, for he was not above praying odd bits of the service twice over, and even sometimes prefaced or supplemented his synagogal performances by solo renditions of the entire ritual of a hundred pages at home.  The morning services began at six in summer and seven in winter, so that the workingman might start his long day’s work fortified.

At the close of the service at the Beth Hamidrash a few mornings after the Redemption of Ezekiel, Solomon went up to Reb Shemuel, who in return for the privilege of blessing the boy gave him a halfpenny.  Solomon passed it on to his father, whom he accompanied.

“Well, how goes it, Reb Meshe?” said Reb Shemuel with his cheery smile, noticing Moses loitering.  He called him “Reb” out of courtesy and in acknowledgment of his piety.  The real “Reb” was a fine figure of a man, with matter, if not piety, enough for two Moses Ansells.  Reb was a popular corruption of “Rav” or Rabbi.

“Bad,” replied Moses.  “I haven’t had any machining to do for a month.  Work is very slack at this time of year.  But God is good.”

“Can’t you sell something?” said Reb Shemuel, thoughtfully caressing his long, gray-streaked black beard.

“I have sold lemons, but the four or five shillings I made went in bread for the children and in rent.  Money runs through the fingers somehow, with a family of five and a frosty winter.  When the lemons were gone I stood where I started.”