Yusuf was an old man who lived on the rocky edge of the village, where the soil was thin and the water was scarce. He spent his days carving stone and tending to a small, stubborn olive grove. He never came to the Bey’s feasts, and he never asked for a loan during the frost.

: Contrasting material debt with spiritual freedom.

Yusuf stood up, wiping the dust from his hands. He looked toward the horizon, where the sun was beginning to dip behind the mountains.

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When the spring finally broke, the villagers expected to find Yusuf’s hut empty. Instead, they found him sitting by his olive trees. They were small, but they were green. He was thinner, perhaps, but his back was as straight as a cedar tree.