"Good children! good children!" said Aaron in a clear, mellifluous voice. Then he put his pipe to his mouth again, and continued to smoke.
"Jew! Jew! Jew!"
"Good little boys and girls," said Aaron. "Bravo! bravo! You deserve a reward. Every laborer is worthy of his hire."
He drew from his pocket three or four pennies, which, with smiling nods of his head, he threw among them.
Instantly came into play other passions--greed, avarice, the determination not to be defrauded of their due. Falling upon the money, they scrambled and fought for it. Aaron threw among them two or three more pennies, and their ardor increased. They scratched, they kicked, they tumbled over each other, blows were exchanged. Those who had secured pennies scampered away with them, and with loud and vengeful cries the penniless scampered after them. The next moment they had all disappeared.
Shaking with internal laughter, Aaron remained on his steps a while, purring at his pipe; then he put up the shutters, locked the street door, and rejoined his wife.
"My dear," he said, and his voice was so gay that her heart beat with joy, "that is the end of the first act. They will not come back to-night."
[CHAPTER XV.]
THE BATTLE IS FOUGHT AND WON.
"The personal affections by which we are governed," said Aaron Cohen, seating himself comfortably in his chair, "are, like all orders of beings to which they come, of various degrees and qualities, and the smaller become merged and lost in the larger, as the serpents of Pharaoh's magicians were swallowed up by Aaron's rod. Wisdom is better than an inheritance, and anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Moreover, as is observed by Rabbi Chanina, 'wise men promote peace in the world.' Such, my dear Rachel, is my aim, and so long as the means within my reach are harmless, so long will I follow the learned rabbi's precept. If the human heart were not full of envy and deceit what I have done should bring joy to our persecutors, but I will not pledge myself that it has done so in this instance. On the contrary, on the contrary." Aaron paused here to laugh. "The opprobrious cries ceased suddenly, did they not, Rachel?"