REB SHLOIMEH 327
"Oho!" said the old lady, "you only laugh at us women !"
Reb Shloimeh drew his brows closer together, wrinkled his forehead still more, and once more fastened his eyes on the teacher's lips.
"It will soon be time to light the fire," muttered the old lady.
The teacher glanced at the clock. "It's late," he said.
"I should think it was !" broke in the old lady. "Why I was allowed to sleep so long, I'm sure I don't know ! People get to talking and even forget about tea."
Reb Shloimeh gave a look out of the window.
"0 wa !" he exclaimed, somewhat vexed, "they are already coming out of Shool, the service is over ! What a thing it is to sit talking ! wa !"
He sprang from his seat, gave the pane a rub with his hand, and began to recite the Afternoon Prayer. The teacher put on his things, but "Wait!" Reb Shloimeh signed to him with his hand.
Reb Shloimeh finished reciting "Incense."
"When shall you teach the children all that?" he asked then, looking into the prayer-book with a scowl.
"Not for a long time, not so quickly," answered the teacher. "The children cannot understand everything."
"I should think not, anything so wonderful !" replied Reb Shloimeh, ironically, gazing at the prayer-book and beginning "Happy are we." He swallowed the prayers as he said them, half of every word; no matter how he wrinkled his forehead, he could not expel the stranger thoughts from his brain, and fix his attention on the prayers. After the service he tried taking up a book,
