Israel was in the way of bribing God again, forgetting, in the heat of his desire, the shame of his journey to Shawan.He made his preparations, and they were few.His money was gone already, and so were his dead wife's jewels.He had determined that he would keep his house, if only as a shelter to Naomi (for he owed something to her material comfort as well as her spiritual welfare), but that its furniture and belongings were more luxurious than their necessity would require or altered state allow.
So he sold to a Jewish merchant in the Mellah the couches and great chairs which he had bought out of England, as well as the carpets from Rabat, the silken hangings from Fez, and the purple canopies from Morocco city.When these were gone, and nothing remained but the simple rugs and mattresses which are all that the house of a poor man needs in that land where the skies are kind, he called his servants to him as he sat in the patio--Ali as well as the two bondwomen--for he had decided that he must part with them also, and they must go their ways.
"My good people," he said, "you have been true and faithful servants to me this many a year--you, Fatimah, and you also, Habeebah, since before the days when my wife came to me--and you too, Ali, my lad, since you grew to be big and helpful.Little I thought to part with you until my good time should come; but my life in our poor Barbary is over already, and to-morrow I shall be less than the least of all men in Tetuan.So this is what I have concluded to do.