"Zeide, keep quiet! Zeide, don't shout! Zeide, don't be afraid!"
All at once, from behind the crowd of children, someone exclaimed threateningly and imperatively:
"Shtyl Bube! What are you doing here, you rascals? Get out!"
The children at once became silent. The man who caused the tranquillity by his loud voice was tall and well built. His long dress was lined with fur. His face looked pale in the dusk, and his eyes shone as only young eyes can shine.
"What are you doing here?" he repeated, in an angry and decided voice. "Do you think that this house is inhabited by wolves, and that you can howl at them and break the windows?"
The boys, gathered in one compact body, were silent. After a while, however, one of them, the tallest, and evidently the boldest, said:
"Why do they not show some light on Sabbath?"
"That's none of your business," said the man.
"No! That's none of yours either," said the stubborn boy. "We come here every week and do the same—what then?"
"I know that you do the same every week. Therefore I watched to catch you here . . . now go home! quick!"