Jacob's Way (15 page)

Phineas was a larger man than Sam. He was well over six feet, and his left trouser leg was pinned up at the knee. He used crutches and moved easily enough, so it seemed to Reisa. They were a strange pair, and she watched them curiously.

Phineas finally grunted. “Reckon there's room enough for one night.”

Indeed there was room, a great deal of it. The two men apparently lived downstairs, but there were two bedrooms upstairs, both with slanting ceilings. Sam led Reisa upstairs and said, “Your granddad and your big friend can sleep here, and you can have this one.”

“That's very kind of you, Mr. Hall.”

“Oh, everybody just calls me Sam. Come on now. We'll get you all freshened up and get your grandpa rested up. You've come a long ways, I take it?”

“All the way from Russia.”

“You tell me that!” Sam was shocked. “All the way from Russia! Think of that!” He studied her carefully. “What's your religion?”

“We're Jewish,” Reisa smiled. She was accustomed to the question.

“Well, I'll be dipped! Ain't that somethin!” Sam seem pleased. “I hope you kin stay for a spell.”

“That's very kind of you. My grandfather isn't well.”

“Well, Jesus can heal him.”

Reisa stared at the man. Sam Hall was small, no more than five seven, about Reisa's own height. He had a cheerful expression, and did not seem conscious that he had said anything strange to a Jew.

Going back downstairs, Reisa went to Jacob. “Sam said we could stay the night.”

“That is wonderful. Thank you so much,” Jacob said to Sam. Sam shrugged. “Why, no trouble at all. Now, let me give Phineas a hand on this grub.”

“You keep your cotton-pickin' hands off of this! I ain't gonna have my cookin' spoiled by you!” Phineas declared.

“In that case I'll just set and talk,” Sam said.

Indeed, talk he did! Sam, Reisa soon discovered, did most of the talking for the pair. She found out amidst the tangled thread of his rather loosely joined conversation that Sam and Phineas had both served in the Confederate Army and had both lost a limb. Sam laughed saying, “Between us we make about one good feller. But the Lord Jesus is good to us to let us live through it. So many of my good friends didn't.”

The meal was quickly prepared and, as usual, the three ate mostly vegetables. Sam was well aware of the dietary restrictions of the Jews. “We eat pork a lot, but maybe I can kill you a deer. You reckon you could dress it so you's could eat it?”

“Yes indeed!” Jacob said. “But we may not be here long enough for that.”

“Well, who knows. The good Lord's got all our ways planned out,” Sam said cheerfully.

“Yes.” Jacob returned his smile. “The great Creator knows our every move.”

“Exactly what I said!” Sam exclaimed.

After supper Reisa put Jacob to bed at once. “Sleep well. We'll rest until you can go on,
Zaideh
.”

Going back downstairs, Reisa offered to help clean up. Sam said cheerfully, “No. That's my job. Phineas cooks, and I clean up. He chops wood, and I bring it in. We got this thing all figured out.”

Dov began a conversation with Phineas, which was unusual. “You good men,” he said.

Phineas stared at the big man suspiciously. “No better than most, I reckon.”

“My English bad. Sorry.”

Phineas studied the big man. “How much do you weigh?”

“Weigh?”

“How many pounds?”

“Don't know.”

“Well, how tall are you?”

“Don't know.”

Phineas found this amusing. “Well, you ain't as big as a steer, but then you ain't a whole lot smaller either.”

“Ver' big.” Dov smiled. “God made me strong. Tomorrow I help you with work. Pay for supper.”

“Ain't no need of that,” Phineas said. “How come you're here?”

“I come with the reb and with Miss Reisa.”

“But why are they here?”

Dov attempted to explain this, and Phineas seemed interested enough. Dov's poor English did not bother him, and the two sat in the kitchen talking. Phineas puffed on a pipe, and the two seemed to hit it off.

At the other end of the large room, Reisa and Sam observed this. “It's unusual for Dov to take to somebody as quickly as he has to your friend,” Reisa said.

“Unusual for Phineas, too. He's as touchy as a bear with a sore toe. But he's got a good heart. He don't know the Lord Jesus, but he's going to one of these days.” He turned to Reisa and said, “So, your grandfather. He's a rabbi?”

“No. He taught Hebrew at home.”

“Isn't that somethin'! I always wanted to hear some of that. What's it sounds like?”

Reisa smiled. “Well, I can speak Hebrew.”

“Say some of it for me, will you?”

“What shall I say?”

“Well, start out in the book of Genesis. I know you folks got that book.”

Reisa said, “I'll get the Bible.” She went at once to Jacob's pack, pulled the Hebrew Bible out, and came back. She began to read and stopped after a few sentences.

“So that's what it sounds like. Say me some more, will you, Miss Reisa?”

Reisa was amazed by this interest. She remembered Carson being so fascinated by the sound of Hebrew, and she read for some time until finally she said, “You're very interested in the Bible.”

“Shore am. Believe it all, too. You ever read any of the new Bible?”

Reisa hesitated, then said, “I read a little bit of a book called John.” She explained how the man on board the ship had given it to her.

“That's a good one,” Sam said. “Maybe we can read to each other or somethin' while you're here.”

Reisa closed the Bible and leaned forward. “It's very kind of you to take us in, Sam.”

“Well, the Old Bible says to be kind to widows, orphans, and foreigners. I don't reckon you're a widow, and you ain't no orphan. You're strangers in this land, so I reckon I have to do what the Lord God says.”

Reisa felt warmed by his words. “Tell me some more about yourself and about Phineas.”

“Us? Well, there ain't much to tell. We ain't got no people left in the world—except Phineas has got a brother somewhere in Georgia, but they don't gehaw together.”

“Gehaw?”

“Get along, don't you see? As for me, I never married so I ain't got no younguns. But I got Phineas, and I got Jesus.”

Reisa smiled. “You seem very content. You had great misfortune, and it hasn't made you bitter.”

“Me bitter! Why should I be bitter? I'm on my way to glory! One of these days I'll walk the golden streets and see my mammy and pappy and won't never be hungry or thirsty no more. I'm lookin' forward to it.”

Reisa found the simple faith of Sam Hall intriguing, and she encouraged him to speak of himself. His conversation was studded with Scriptures that she knew must be from the New Testament, but he knew many from the Old Testament as well. It seemed to her that he had memorized most of the Bible. Finally he said, “Well, you get to bed now, Miss Reisa. We'll get up, and we'll start a new day. May the Lord Jesus give you a good sleep.”

“Good night, Sam.”

She went upstairs followed by Boris, took off her clothes, and donned a nightgown. She brushed her hair for a while, then put it up again, and then left it out long. She envied the Gentile women who could let their hair down. It seemed it would give her so much freedom. Finally she lay down and went to sleep with Boris purring and heating up her bed like a miniature furnace. Far away she heard the sound of an owl. It had a ghostly sound but not unfriendly, and that sound was the last she remembered.

Twelve

R
eisa left her room followed by Boris, who had a bad habit of getting in front of her and stopping. She opened the door to see how Jacob was. He was lying still, his eyes closed, his face turned upward, and the rigors of their journey were written plainly on his thin features. His cheeks seemed to be sunk in, and he looked somehow older. For some reason this frightened Reisa. She knew that some day she must lose him, but that had been a distant event far off in the future. Now the thought of his death brought a cold chill to her heart.

Quietly she closed the door, then went downstairs. She found Phineas and Sam already up, Phineas cooking something on the stove and Sam sitting in a chair tilted back against the wall talking to Dov. He smiled as Reisa came in.

“Morning,” Sam said. “I've just been talking to Dov here. He was telling me a little bit about your trip across the big water.”

Reisa nodded. “That was a hard trip. If it hadn't been for Dov, I don't know if I would have made it or not. God has sent him to Grandfather and me for a friend.”

Phineas looked up from his cooking and said, “What can you eat?”

“We can always eat eggs of any kind.”

“Can you eat grits?”

“Grits?” Reisa looked puzzled. “What are grits?”

“They're corn ground up real fine. You put butter, salt, and pepper on them. They're real good,” Sam responded. “Phineas makes the best grits in the whole country. I'll vouch for that.”

The breakfast was simple, composed merely of one egg for Reisa with a mound of grits, and half a dozen eggs for Dov with an even larger mound of grits. For a big man, Dov ate rather fastidiously but rapidly.

“Grandfather is very tired,” Reisa said. “Would it put you out too much if we stayed another day?”

“Why, land sakes!” Sam cried. “It won't be no put out at all!”

“Perhaps I can help you with the cooking, Phineas.”

Dov said, “I work. Show me what.”

Sam clawed his bristly face and thought for a moment. “Well,” he said firmly. “There's a stump out there that me and Phineas been hackin' away at. I ain't much with an ax with one hand, and Phineas can't get at it too good hoppin' around like he does.”

“You show me.”

The two left, and Reisa insisted on helping wash the dishes. She found Phineas not loquacious and knew that they were not as welcome to him as they were with Sam. Still she made the best of it and asked him many questions about their lives. Phineas answered shortly, but he seemed to appreciate the help she gave. Reisa was used to cleaning, and it gave her pleasure to do something to repay the hospitality of the two men.

Soon the sound of an ax came to them, and Phineas shrugged. “Might as well go watch that big friend of yours work.” Reisa followed him outside and found Sam squatted down watching Dov. It was a massive stump, and a hole had been dug around it. Dov chopped regularly, and Phineas remarked, “The thing's got a tap root. If we can get that cut through, we can haul the thing out of there. I don't know as he can do it, though.”

“Yes, he can,” Reisa said loyally. “Dov's very strong.”

The three watched as the chips flew regularly. The ax looked very small in Dov's big hands, almost like a stick, and Sam remarked once, “Don't see how that handle's taking it. I hope he don't break it. We don't got no other one.”

The chopping went on without a break for over an hour, and Sam shook his head. “Don't that fellow ever get tired?”

Even as he spoke, Dov stopped and laid the ax down. “Almost done,” he said. He had gone all the way around the trench, and now he leaned his shoulder against the stump. Bracing his feet, he began to apply pressure. Reisa saw that veins began to grow in his neck, for he wore a loose-fitting shirt exposing the mighty muscles of his neck and shoulders.

“Well, I'll be dipped!” Sam cried. “It moved! I think he's got it!”

“It ain't broke yet,” Phineas said roughly.

The three watched as Dov continued to apply pressure. They could see the huge stump move in short increments, and each time it groaned as if reluctant to give up its grip on the earth.

“We'll have to borrow a good team and pull that stump,” Phineas said. “He can't break it.”

Even as he spoke, Dov seemed to gain fresh strength. He applied pressure, and suddenly there was a cracking sound. The stump sagged, then fell over to its side, and Dov sprawled out on top of it.

“He done her!” Sam yelled. “By heaven, he done her!”

“I didn't think no man on earth could do that,” Phineas said. Grudgingly he added, “You're a good man to have around, Dov. Come on in, and I'll feed you another breakfast after all that.”

But Dov was not finished. He borrowed a rope, tied it around the stump, and heaved until it had come clear of its hole.

He stood looking down into it, panting for breath. “Now, fill up hole.”

“It'll take a while to do that. Look at the size of that hole! That stump's been here many a year. Look at all these rings, Miss Reisa.”

They tried counting the rings of the flat section of the stump.

“I reckon that was here when George Washington was crossing the Delaware,” Sam said. “Maybe even longer.”

“I'm glad to have that pesky thing out of the way,” Phineas said. “Now you set and rest awhile.”

“Not tired,” Dov remarked.

Phineas seemed in a good mood. “You set right over there in that chair.”

Dov shrugged and went to take his seat.

Phineas stepped inside the cabin a moment and came back out with a fiddle and a bow in his hands. He gave one of his rare smiles. “I reckon I'll entertain you a little bit now, since you put on a show for us.”

He began to play, and Reisa was amazed. The rough-looking Phineas had a touch with a fiddle such as she had never heard. The song he played was poignant and sad, but still it was beautifully done. The notes came sure and pure, and he wove a melody that seemed to cry out for words.

“Oh, that was wonderful, Phineas!” Reisa cried. “You play so well.”

“Play another,” Dov said.

“Yeah,” Sam agreed. “Play a fast one.”

Phineas played another song, this time one so rapid you could barely see his fingers move. The bow moved back and forth across the strings, and Sam whispered, “He don't hardly ever play no happy tunes. Mostly them sad 'uns. He makes up a lot of them his own self.”

He played for twenty minutes, and Reisa looked up to see Jacob, who had come to stand in the doorway.

“Zaideh!”
she cried and went to him at once. “Listen to Phineas play! Isn't he a wonderful fiddler?”

“I have never heard better.” Jacob smiled.

He looked tired, and Reisa said at once, “You come and sit down. I will feed you some grits.”

“Grits!”

“Yes. You will see. Sit down.”

All of them went back inside, and Reisa took over the stove. She soft-boiled two eggs for Jacob, then put grits on his plate, adding butter, salt, pepper, and a piece of bread. “Now, you eat every bite of that.”

Jacob ate and looked somewhat better after his meal. Dov was ready to work again, and Phineas left to show him a barn that needed to be propped up, stating it was going to fall over flat if something wasn't done.

Sam made no move to go to work, but after Jacob was finished eating, he began at once asking him questions about the Old Testament.

Reisa moved about finding things to do. She decided she could wash, for she had seen a large black washing pot outside. Going out, she built a fire under it and filled it with water. There was another for rinsing, and soon she was busy rubbing clothes out on a washboard, happily at work. She could see Dov working on the barn, directed by Phineas, and the weather was clear. Although the temperature was warm now, it being August, she wondered how they would fare in the dead of winter in this country. It would not be so bad, she knew, as in New York, and certainly not as frightfully cold as in Russia. But still she was concerned.

Inside at the table Sam was listening as Jacob read the Old Testament. Sam had his Bible out and was trying to follow along as Jacob read in the book of Isaiah. Sam asked, “What do you think about that part in Isaiah that talks about the Messiah?” He opened his Bible and said, “Here in Chapter 42 it says, ‘Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.'”

Jacob nodded and read the same passage in Hebrew, then translated it freely into English. “All good Jews think of the Messiah. We pray daily for his coming. This passage has always spoken to my heart.”

“I guess I'm one of the Gentiles it talks about here.” He went ahead and continued to read. “‘He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.'”

Looking up, Sam shook his head. “This world has been in a mess for a long time, ain't it, Jacob?”

“A very long time, Sam. But when the Messiah comes, he will bring justice to all people.” Jacob looked up, a sadness in his eyes. “We have not seen that, for all people do not have justice. Indeed, the just seemed to be ground into the earth, and the proud rule over them harshly.”

Sam studied the old man and said, “What about this one in chapter 61 of Isaiah? It starts out, ‘The spirit of the Lord God is upon me.' ” He waited until Jacob had found the place in his Bible and then continued. “‘Because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.' Now that there is what I call a bodacious good promise!”

“Yes. That will be a good day when it comes. May the Master of the Universe bring it to pass.”

Sam said, “Let me read you something from the New Bible. It comes from the book of Luke, the fourth chapter. It was the first time Jesus ever preached. It begins here in verse sixteen: ‘And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.'”

Sam looked up and saw that Jacob was astonished. “That is what it says?”

“There it is.” Sam turned his Bible around, and Jacob began to read. He had never read one word of the New Testament, and his face was a study. “He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He was a good Jew, this Jesus?”

“Oh, yes,” Sam said. “He always took up for the law of Moses. When he healed somebody, he would say, ‘Go to the priest as Moses commanded you.' All kinds of stuff like that.”

Jacob was reading the New Testament passage again and was very quiet. He looked up and said, “Then this Jesus claimed to be the Messiah that Isaiah spoke of.”

“Yep, he did, and I found over a hundred prophecies in the Old Bible that fit Jesus down to a T.”

Jacob found it difficult to answer. All his life he had heard nothing good of Christians, but somehow this passage had a hold on him. He said, “I cannot believe it, Sam. I am too set in my ways.”

“When Jesus came, they were looking for the Messiah then. People kept asking him, ‘Are you the Messiah? Are you the one Malachi talked about?'” Sam said quietly. “Some of 'em was lookin' for a great military general to lead the Jews to victory over their enemies, but he never done that.”

“There are many Scriptures that talk about this in the Old Testament.”

“What do you make of this one?” Sam turned back to Isaiah and read the first line, and Jacob found the place.

“‘Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the L
ORD
revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.'”

“That man don't sound like no great conqueror, does he, Jacob?”

“No indeed.” Jacob was an honest man, and he said, “I have troubled myself over this passage. How can this be the Messiah? He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. My people are looking for a victorious conqueror.”

The two went on talking for over an hour, going back and forth through the Scripture.