"My wife should not need to ask such a question," said Rabbi Meir.
"Would you hesitate to give anyone back his own?"
"Oh, no," replied she, "but I did not like to give them back without your knowing beforehand." Then she led him to the upper chamber, stepped in, and took the covering off the bodies.
"Oh, my sons," sobbed the father, "my sons, my sons!" The mother turned herself away and wept.
Soon, however, his wife took him by the hand and said: "Rabbi, have you not taught me that we must not refuse to give back what was intrusted to us to keep? See, the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: the name of the Lord be blessed."
And Rabbi Meir repeated the words, and said from the depths of his heart, "Amen."
LESSON VII
STATUE OF LIBERTY IN NEW YORK HARBOR
"Liberty," or Bartholdi's statue, was presented to the United States by the French people in 1885. It is the largest statue ever built. The great French sculptor Bartholdi made it after the likeness of his mother. Eight years were consumed in the construction of this gigantic image. Its size is really enormous. The height of the figure alone is fully one hundred and fifty feet. Forty persons can find standing room within the mighty head, which is fifteen feet in diameter. A six-foot man, standing upon the lower lip, can hardly reach the eyes of the colossal head. The index finger is eight feet long, and the nose is over three feet long. Yet the proportion of all the parts of the figure is so well preserved that the whole statue is in perfect harmony.
The materials of which the statue is composed are copper and steel. The immense torch which is held in the hand of the giantess is three hundred feet above tidewater.
The Colossus of Rhodes was a pigmy compared with this huge wonder.