"
"Truly, little one, thy Father lights it," said Israel; "thy Father
which is in heaven."
"Sweetheart," he said again, "what is darkness?"
"Oh, darkness is cold," said Naomi promptly, and she seemed to shiver.
"Then the light must be warmth, little one?" said Israel.
"Yes, and noise," she answered; and then she added quickly, "Light is
alive."
Saying this, she crept closer to his side, and knelt there, and by her
old trick of love she took his hand in both of hers, and pressed it
against her cheek, and then, lifting her sweet face with its motionless
eyes she began to tell him in her broken words and pretty lisp what she
thought of night. In the night the world, and everything in it, was cold
and quiet. That was death. The angels of God came to the world in the
day. But God Himself came in the night, because He loved silence,
and because all the world was dead. Then He kissed things, and in the
morning all that God had kissed came to life again. If you were to get
up early you would feel God's kiss on the flowers and on the grass. And
that was why the birds were singing then. God had kissed them in the
night, and they were glad.
One day Israel took Naomi to the mearrah of the Jews, the little
cemetery outside the town walls where he had buried Ruth.
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