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- Hey, Jacob! Where'd you come up with the idea that this neighborhood was gonna burn? How can you be so sure? Why did you stir us all up and drive us all here? What did you put in your head? In Sarajevo, we had houses, warehouses, and shops, and now they're sure to have been looted. Or maybe if we had stayed like Abraham, we would have defended our good?
James, as if he hadn't heard their brazen impudence, filled his pipe with tobacco and quietly searched for coal in the fire.
- Do you know where to go? - Parliamentarians didn't get over it. - There is no war in the mountains here, but we will all freeze and, what is good, we will be left without food at all.
- Greed will ruin your hunger," the old man said then. - I see, my elbows are ready to bite. Ah, Baruch, Baruch, just think with your clever head: what should you start a shop again? Let's even get to the Arctic Ocean - I bet: if we stay there for a while, you'll be the first to open the shop. Is that the point?
- You're completely nuts about your old age," Baruch said. - We notice that you are talking to a cat. Do you know what people think about you?
- Yes, yes, - supported by his comrade. - Do you know what everyone thinks about you?
- The last thing I want to know about it is that you suckers are like that! - James got angry. - Get out of here, both of you! I see you've got your brains all melted away! The water will be tomorrow! - He yelled at them in the back. - Tell your own people to put up with it for a while. This Abraham is right about one thing," James bent over to the basket. - The herd is a herd, and it would be less for them to talk about both. Well, there's nothing you can do about it. God will forgive me for lying, because the truth is unbearable for these idiots.
Then he went to the tents and surpassed himself in eloquence, convincing the Jews not to give in to despondency. He swore by the prophets and beards of his respectable ancestors to remember the family tree of each one who stood before him, almost to the seventh tribe, and painted a warm welcome in Munich and Tel Aviv (where anyone would have liked to stay, though he himself would have preferred to send them all to America), so that the crowd was not jokingly excited.
- Lead us, Jacob!" he cried out. - We only listen to you. Indeed, Vejamin, the smartest of the cleverest, was right when he wanted to make you his successor!
A lot of people were impatient. Men and women were seriously dreaming of a future sour life. And James, returning under the stone to the cold campfire, coughed and trembled for a long time and could not recover.
- What kind of children are they," he said, turning around on the blanket. - Even Swainger's bearded mouth opened like a child. They all need a miracle: a must-have paradise where they feed themselves on manna, that's why they'll run after any bait... And that's not how you look," James knocked on the basket. - You act like you're going to travel with me forever.
Moore yawned and answered, boldly and straightforwardly, knowing that the man would not hear:
- No, the old fool. I need my bowl, my plaid, my garden, which I will own. I have no doubt that this miracle is quite achievable.
And the cat stared into the darkness, putting his precious head on his paws. James finally fell asleep. His people also calmed down. They were asleep, as they thought, in the silence of space. But in fact, the air here was full of voices. It was just a common, unstoppable chatter of spirits. Elementals flew out of all their shelters and cracked like southern traders discussing refugees. Muri wasn't surprised at all when the inhabitants here started to wash his bones, but their observation immediately went too far.
- He was a stubborn narcissist," the spirits squeaked on all voices and ways. - The cunning beast knows what he needs. Nothing will stop him, though, here is the passageway! It will take a long time to fool the old man! Hey! - they bullied the cat. - And it is not a shame for you to ride an old bipedal?
- Shut up! - Moore answered with a threateningly threatening gutta-perchais back. - What do you care about me? What do you know about the bowl and the warm blanket?
He waved his paw, driving away the discerning observers under his nose, and then tried to fall asleep. It wasn't easy to do it in such a homo in such a way!
******************************************************************************TTo be continued in the next part