"Lejbele!" repeated Meir, and he put his hand upon the child's head.
He opened a pair of half-unconscious eyes and smiled.
"Why did you come here?" asked Meir, kindly.
The child seemed to collect his thoughts, and then answered:
"I followed you."
"Father and mother will not know what has become of you."
"Father sleeps, and mother sleeps," began Lejbele, rocking his head; "and the goats are sleeping," he added after a while, and at the remembrance of those, his best friends, he laughed aloud.
But from Meir's lips the slight smile had vanished.
He sighed and said, as if to himself:
"How shall I act? What ought I to do?"