Golda sat down because her limbs trembled. She passed both her hands over her hot face, and with upraised eyes replied:
"I shall sit before the door of this hut, spin my wool and tend my goats, looking along the road whence you will come back!"
It was an adaptation from the story of Akiba.
Meir asked dreamily:
"And what will you do if people come and laugh at you and say: 'Akiba is drinking at the spring of wisdom whilst your body is consumed with misery and your eyes are dull from weeping?'"
A voice stifled with emotion replied to him:
"I shall answer this: 'Let misery consume my body, and my eyes run over with tears; yet truly will I guard my husband's faith.' And if he stood before me and said: 'I have come back because I did not wish you to weep any longer,' I should say to him: 'Go and drink more.'"
Meir rose. There was no despair on his face now, but hope and courage depicted in his whole bearing.
"I will come back, Rachel," he exclaimed. "Jehovah will give me strength, and good people will help me if I show them my hard yearning after knowledge and the writing of the Senior, which is the covenant of peace between Israel and the nations. I shall drink long and eagerly at the spring of wisdom; then come back and teach my people, and for all the misery and contempt which you suffer, I shall put a golden crown upon your head."
Golda shook her head. The expression in her face showed she had been carried away by a wonderful dream. She dreamt she was Rachel, greeting her husband Akiba. With passionate eyes and a far-away smile, she whispered: