“Open the door!”
It was the voice of that magpie, Aaron Hirsch. He was fond of Aaron and jumped up to open the door.
“You can’t do business with the door locked,” laughed Aaron.
“Just as much as with the door open,” Albert replied in a challenging voice.
Aaron laughed good naturedly, unbuttoning his coat, heaved a long drawn sigh, and asked, “How is business?”
“An ingenious question? Oh, business is wonderful—simply wonderful—can’t you see? I have sold every bit of my stock——”
Aaron laughed.
“What’s the good word from Uncle Leopold?——”
“I am coming on no mission from him,” Aaron rejoined, shrugging his shoulders as if the mere thought of it was foreign to him.
“Aaron Hirsch, for this falsehood you’ll have to fast two Mondays and two Thursdays, and at that I am sure on the Day of Judgment, when you’ll begin to tell all the good deeds you had done in this world, a seraph will rush in, clapping his wings, and will halt your entering through the gates of heaven because you had lied to a poor innocent earthly poet.”