EEB SHLOIMEH 331
one reply was, "I don't know." They scolded her for it. "How can you not know, glomp?" they exclaimed. "Aren't you sometimes in the room with them ?"
"Look here, good people, what's the use of coming to me?" the maid would cry. "How can I know, sitting in the kitchen, what they are about? When I bring in the tea, I see them talking, and I go !"
"Dull beast !" they would reply. Then they left her, and betook themselves to the grandchildren, who knew nothing, either.
"They have tea," was their answer to the question, "What does grandfather do with the teacher?"
"But what do they talk about, sillies ?"
"We haven't heard !" the children answered gravely.
They tried the old lady.
"Is it my business ?" she answered.
They tried to go in to Eeb Shloimeh's house, on the pretext of some business or other, but that didn't suc- ceed, either. At last, a few near and dear friends asked Eeb Shloimeh himself.
"How people do gossip !" he answered.
"Well, what is it?"
"We just sit and talk!"
There it remained. The matter was discussed all over the town. Of course, nobody was satisfied. But' he pacified them little by little.
The apostate teacher must turn hot and cold with him!
They imagined that they were occupied with research, and that Eeb Shloimeh was opening the teacher's eyes for him and they were pacified. When Eeb Shloimeh
