The gleam in Yossel's face became a great flame of joy. 'I shall die in Palestine?' he asked ecstatically.
'As sure as I live! I will pay your fare the whole way, second-class.'
For a moment the dazzling sunshine continued on Yossel's face, then a cloud began to pass across it.
'But how can I take your money? I am not a Schnorrer.'
Schneemann did not find the question easy to answer. The more so as Yossel's eagerness to go and die in Palestine seemed to show that there was no reason for packing him off. However, he told himself that one must make assurance doubly sure and that, even if it was all empty gossip, still he had stumbled upon a way of making an old man happy.
'There is no reason why you should take my money,' he said with an artistic inspiration, 'but there is every reason why I should buy to myself the Mitzvah (good deed) of sending you to Jerusalem. You see, I have so few good deeds to my credit.'
'So I have heard,' replied Yossel placidly. 'A very wicked life it is said you lead at Rome.'
'Most true,' said the artist cheerfully.
'It is said also that you break the Second Commandment by making representations of things that are on sea and land.'
'I would the critics admitted as much,' murmured the artist.