"'Don't!' said the Rabbi in a low voice. 'I don't need any light.
Lock the gates from the inside!'
"'But, Mr. von Rosenberg----'
"'Lock it, I say!'
"The watchman obeyed.
"'Now lead me to the grave of the holy Rabbi Simeon-ben-Yehudah!'
"'Hold on to my coat, esteemed sir,' said the watchman. 'It is dark
and you may stumble over the old graves.'
"'I can see better at night than in the daytime, my son!' answered
the learned Polish Jew.
"'Here is the grave!'
"The old Rabbi reverently leaned over the tombstone. The watchman
heard him pronounce a prayer in Jewish. He used so many words of
ancient Hebrew, or some other words of a language he did not
understand, that he knew only a few separate expressions, although
he himself had been in the past a teacher at the Bohemian
community.
"Having completed his prayer, the stranger turned to the watchman
of the cemetery:
"'When you accepted the position from your predecessor, did he not
give you certain instructions?'
"'Me?'
"'Yes, you! It was so from the day the first person was buried in
this place.'
"'Well, and what if he did give such instructions,--how does that
concern you? This the first time I am asked about this matter since
I am employed here.'
"'Because this happens once in a hundred years, and human life
rarely lasts as long as that.
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