lost.  Informed that the son of Nethuna had one like it, the priests went to him and offered him a very large price for it.  He consented to take the sum offered, and went into an adjoining room to fetch the jewel.  On entering he found his father asleep, his foot resting on the chest wherein the gem was deposited.  Without disturbing his father, he went back to the priests and told them that he must for the present forego the large profit he could make, as his father was asleep.  The case being urgent, and the priests thinking that he only said so to obtain a larger price, offered him more money.  “No,” said he; “I would not even for a moment disturb my father’s rest for all the treasures in the world.”  The priests waited till the father awoke, when Damah brought them the jewel.  They gave him the sum they had offered him the second time, but the good man refused to take it.  “I will not,” said he, “barter for gold the satisfaction of having done my duty.  Give me what you offered at first, and I shall be satisfied.”  This they did, and left him with a blessing.

An Ingenious Will.

One of the best rabbinical stories of common life is of a wise man who, residing at some distance from Jerusalem, had sent his son to the Holy City in order to complete his education, and, dying during his son’s absence, bequeathed the whole of his estate to one of his own slaves, on the condition that he should allow his son to select any one article which pleased him for an inheritance.  Surprised, and naturally angry, at such gross injustice on the part of his father in preferring a slave for his heir in place of himself, the young man sought counsel of his teacher, who, after considering the terms of the will, thus explained its meaning and effect:  “By this action thy father has simply secured thy inheritance to thee:  to prevent his slaves from plundering the estate before thou couldst formally claim it, he left it to one of them, who, believing himself to be the owner, would take care of the property.  Now, what a slave possesses belongs to his master.  Choose, therefore, the slave for thy portion, and then possess all that was thy father’s.”  The young man followed his teacher’s advice, took possession of the slave, and thus of his father’s wealth, and then gave the slave his freedom, together with a considerable sum of money.[86]

   [86] This story seems to be the original of a French popular
        tale, in which a gentleman secures his estate for his
        son by a similar device.  The gentleman, dying at Paris
        while his son was on his travels, bequeathed all his
        wealth to a convent, on condition that they should give
        his son “whatever they chose.”  On the son’s return he
        received from the holy fathers a very trifling portion
        of the paternal estate.  He complained to his friends of
        this injustice, but they all agreed that there was no