a peasant's cart and horse—and the Rav drove away to Wilna.
The Rav passed the drive marshalling his arguments, settling on what he should say, and how he should explain himself, and he was delighted to see how, the more deeply he pondered his plan, the more he thought it out, the more efficient and appropriate it appeared, and the clearer he saw what happiness it would bestow on men all the world over. The small cart arrived at Wilna.
"Whither are we to drive?" asked the peasant.
"Whither? To a Jew," answered the Rav. "For where is the Jew who will not give me a night's lodging?"
"And I, with my cart and horse?"
The Rav sat perplexed, but a Jew passing by heard the conversation, and explained to him that Wilna is not Pumpian, and that they would have to drive to a post-house, or an inn.
"Be it so!" said the Rav, and the Jew gave him the address of a place to which they should drive.
Wilna! It is certainly not the same thing as Pumpian. Now, for the first time in his life, the Rav saw whole streets of tall houses, of two and three stories, all as it were under one roof, and how fine they are, thought he, with their decorated exteriors!
"Oi, there live the unfortunate people!" said Reb Nochumtzi to himself. "I never saw anything like them before! How can they bear such a misfortune? I shall come to them as an angel of deliverance!"
