THE BAY AND THE EAV'S SON 443
When they were outside the town, the old man coughed once and again and said:
"What is all this?"
But Sholem was determined not to answer a word, and his father had to summon all his courage to con- tinue :
"What is all this? Eh? Sabbath-breaking! It is"
He coughed and was silent.
They were walking over a great, broad meadow, and Sholem had his gaze fixed on a horse that was moving about with hobbled legs, while the Eav shaded his eyes with one hand from the beams of the setting sun.
"How can anyone break the Sabbath? Come now, is it right? Is it a thing to do? Just to go and break the Sabbath ! I knew Hebrew grammar, and could write Hebrew, too, once upon a time, but break the Sabbath ! Tell me yourself, Sholem, what you think ! When you have bad thoughts, how is it you don't come to your father? I suppose I am your father, ha?" the old man suddenly fired up. "Am I your father ? Tell me no ? Am I perhaps not your father ?"
"For I am his father," he reflected proudly. "That I certainly am, there isn't the smallest doubt about it! The greatest heretic could not deny it!"
"You come to your father," he went on with more decision, and falling into a Gemoreh chant, "and you tell him all about it. What harm can it do to tell him ? No harm whatever. I also used to be tempted by bad thoughts. Therefore I began driving to the Eebbe of Libavitch. One mustn't let oneself go! Do you hear me, Sholem? One mustn't let oneself go!"
