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can!” the twins burst out. “He preaches, when his master is too tired to do it himself.”
    Elvina laughs. “You are just children, and people have been telling you stories. In our world, animals don’t talk. In the Bible, there is a donkey that speaks to tell her master not to beat her. It is written that our Lord ‘opened’ her mouth. But you’ll say I’m being pretentious if I tell you about it.”
    Naomi and Rachel draw close to Elvina. “Muriel and Bella said you were pretentious. We never did. Tell us the story of the donkey!” The twins look serious in a way Elvina has never noticed before. “Go on; tell us,” they beg. “We want to know.”
    â€œIt’s the story of Balaam’s she-ass,” Elvina begins. “She told Balaam that she had always been his faithful donkey and that he had ridden her every day since boyhood, so there was no need to beat her. You see, the Lord lent the donkey the power of speech to show Balaam that only He could decide whether a man or a beast should speak. Believe me, in our world here below, animals don’t speak.”
    â€œHow do you know? Maybe Peter the Hermit’s donkey can.”
    Muriel comes to her young cousins’ rescue. “That’s what people are saying, Elvina. And it’s not only the children.”
    Elvina looks thoughtful. “And this barefoot man riding a donkey is about to lead thousands of people to the Holy Land! It seems he promises them everything under the sun: forgiveness for their sins, eternal life —”
    Muriel interrupts, “What if they start by burning down our homes? Have you thought of that?”
    â€œOf course I have, just like you. But I’m not so worried, because I also think that my grandfather will find a way to avoid catastrophe. My grandfather knows everything.”

VII
    Then I left Muriel and her cousins, I rushed home, with the sound of my clogs echoing through the empty streets. I didn’t stop to look right or left. I was in such a hurry that I didn’t even try to avoid the half-frozen puddles, whose dirty ice-cold water splashed me from head to toe.
    At Muriel’s I had pretended to be brave, but now I was overpowered with fear, especially as I arrived at the corner of our street. What if I saw a whole troop of Crusaders right in front of our house? Would I be quick enough to run in the other direction before they saw me? And what if some of them were hiding in our courtyard? Would my Mazal trouble himself to rescue me? Had I gone out against his will? In that case, would he still watch over me and get me home safely?
    I was also scared I would meet my father. How could I explain what I was doing in the deserted street? And I remembered what Bella had told me. What if those dreadful Crusaders came to our house? What if they hit my father and my grandfather as they had hit Bella’s father? It was too horrible even to imagine.
    But I met nobody, neither Crusaders nor my father. I only saw an old idiot beggar who drags himself along as best he can, because his legs won’t carry him anymore. Still running, I shouted out to him, warning him to find shelter.
    Once I was safely at home behind the barricaded door, I began to feel sad. I wondered if I really was too proud. What if Muriel was right? I
am
proud of belonging to a learned family, but her reproach had hurt me deeply. I had never heard anyone accuse my father or my grandfather of being proud, so who was I to act that way?
    All this was going through my mind when I saw my grandfather crossing the courtyard. I rushed up to him and poured out my soul, telling him that I had gone to Muriel’s and had been terrified on the way home and even that I had broken my eggs and that my father was angry with me. “Did God put me on earth just to hatch eggs?” I sobbed.
    In spite of all his worries, he took the time to comfort me by making fun of my silliness.