Part 7 (1/2)
”And what will you call your city?” he ventured.
”Ararat,” answered the founder. ”Some of my friends have tried to persuade me to name it after myself; this I would not do, but since I would have future generations know of my share in the building of the city, I shall call it Ararat, which they may interpret as the city of Noah. But above all would I remind all that hear its name that it is a city of refuge, even as the mountain Ararat was a place of safety after the flood which destroyed the earth in the days of Noah of old.
Our people, tossed for so long upon the seas of bitterness and hatred, will rest here as the ark rested upon the mountain Ararat when the waters of the flood subsided.”
”But will only Jews be welcome there?”
”It will be as open as Abraham's tent to every wanderer who seeks shelter there,” replied Mordecai Noah with a magnificent gesture.
”Especially to our brethren, the Indians. For I firmly believe,” he went on, not pausing to think that the boy from across the seas could not possibly understand him, ”I firmly believe that the red men are descended from the lost tribes of Israel and are ready to extend to us the hand of brotherhood and forsake their own G.o.ds for the G.o.d of our fathers. You have never seen our Indian brothers?” Hus.h.i.+el shook his head, but Peninah, thoroughly worn out by her journey and the long talk which she could not comprehend, had fallen asleep and could not answer. ”Then you will see them for the first time at the dedication ceremony of our city of Ararat,” he promised graciously.
”And when will the city be dedicated?” The boy's tone was eager.
”Next week. And I will take both of you to Buffalo with me that you may see the ceremonies. You see you have come in good time,” answered Mr. Mordecai Noah.
”But I won't go in these clothes,” objected Peninah hotly.
For almost a week she and her brother had been guests in Mr. Noah's household, and every day one or another of his Christian or Jewish friends had come to visit them. They were very wonderful people, these Americans, thought Peninah, and most wonderful of all were the little girls of her own age, with their full skirts and dainty bonnets. True, they had never seen the Sahara Desert or crossed the mysterious ocean, yet she envied them their pretty clothes, feeling outlandishly queer in her pointed cap and baggy trousers. Mr. Noah had been very kind to her; he had brought her several pretty trinkets and a box of sweetmeats, almost as good as those one could buy in the bazaar at home, she told Hus.h.i.+el--but on one point he was firm and nothing could move him.
”Tomorrow will be a great day for every Jew upon the face of the earth,” he had told the children the evening before the day set for the dedication ceremonies for which he had brought them to Buffalo. ”I should like to purchase a little present for each of you, some token that you may show your children some day when you tell them of the founding of Ararat, my city. What shall it be?” he asked, smiling into their eager faces.
”You have given us too much already, more than we can ever repay,”
protested Hus.h.i.+el, but his modest answer was quite drowned by Peninah's shrill:
”I want a new dress and a bonnet with strings and slippers like the little American girls wear!”
”Peninah! Aren't you ashamed to ask for so much,” chided her brother.
”And I want a little black silk bag to carry tomorrow,” went on Peninah, unabashed. ”And I think I'd like blue ribbons on the bonnet.”
Mr. Noah smiled indulgently, but he shook his head. ”I will get you an outfit such as little American girls wear,” he promised, kindly, ”but you must not wear it tomorrow.”
Peninah stared at him. ”But I want them for tomorrow,” she protested.
”All the little girls I have met here in your house are coming tomorrow and if I am dressed as they are, they will not stare at me as though I were a dancing girl at a fair. I'm going to take off these,”
she tugged angrily at the bright beads about her neck, ”and these,”
and she gave a defiant twitch to her hated Oriental trousers.
”Your clothes are very pretty,” soothed Mr. Noah, ”but if you prefer to dress like the people of our country, I will buy you everything you need. Only tomorrow you must wear the clothes you wore at home--even if the people stare.”
”But why?--I look so different----”
”It is just because your clothes are so different,” explained Mordecai Noah patiently, ”that I want you to wear them. My dream is to have our city a refuge for the Jews of all the nations of the earth.
Many people of Buffalo have heard your story, but they have not seen you. When they see you and Hus.h.i.+el in your native dress, it will impress them greatly as they realize that even the children of the lands far across the sea have sought my city and long to make their home there. You understand, don't you?”
Hus.h.i.+el nodded, but Peninah stamped her small, slippered foot angrily.
”I won't go if I have to wear these horrid clothes which make people stare at me,” she declared angrily, and ran from the room, crying as she went. Mr. Noah seemed really disturbed and was about to call her back, but Hus.h.i.+el only laughed a little and shrugged at her anger.
”'The camel wanted to have horns, so he lost his ears for his greediness',” he quoted in Hebrew. ”It is hard to satisfy a woman.