"'If drops of water,' remarked the future sage, 'have such power, what force will not then the human will have.'
"He presented himself before his teachers without weakness and without false shame. He commenced with the letters of the alphabet, and in his free moments he gathered wood and sold the fagots in the market-place. Half of his earnings fed him, the other half clothed and lodged him.
"Akiba soon astonished his masters. From a scholar he became an eminent professor. Thousands of disciples grouped around him.
"During this time his wife waited. A wicked neighbour insinuated that he had abandoned her and would never return.
"'It was I,' replied the wife, 'twelve years ago, who begged him to leave me and devote himself to science. If he prolong his studies twelve years longer, it will be well.'
"Akiba heard of this advice, given indirectly, and profited by it. After the lapse of this time he returned to his native place. His renown had preceded him. All the population turned out to see him, and his wife was in the crowd. The wicked neighbour asked her how she dared present herself in rags before such an illustrious man.
"'My husband knows my heart,' replied she simply. Before she was perceived, she ran out and threw herself at his feet. The pupils of Akiba would have repulsed her, but he said:--
"'Let her come to me. She is my wife, and it is to her that you and I owe much.'
"Kalba Chaboua at last forgave his daughter and his son-in-law, and received them into his house.
"Akiba had two remarkable teachers,--Eliezer and Nahum. The former was called the sealed vase, for he never lost a drop of acquired science. The latter, subtle and penetrating, shone by the fineness of his analysis. Their pupil united to the erudition of the one the critical spirit of the other.