"What do you mean by saying he took it himself?" "Don't you understand, peasant's head? He took it from the shelf when no one was looking." "Gracious me! That means he stole?" "Fool of the night! Well, what then?" "What do you mean? Then he is a thief?" "For the sake of the party, fool." "Is it a good deed to steal for that?" "Certainly. What do you say to the wise one of the 'Four questions'?" "Where is it written?" "He wants us to tell him where it is written?" "Tell him it is written in the Book of Jests." "In the chapter called 'And he took.'" "Beginning with the words 'Bim-bom.'" "Ha! ha! ha!" "Hush, children, Mazeppa comes." All at once there was silence. We were sitting around the table quiet as lambs, like angels, golden children who could not count two, and whose souls were innocent. * * * Mazeppa was the teacher's name. That is to say, his real name was Baruch-Moshe. He had come to our town from Mazapevka not long before, and the people called him the Mazapevkar. We boys shortened his name to Mazeppa. And when pupils crown their teacher with such a lovely name, he must be worthy of it. Let me introduce him. He is small, thin, dried-up, hideously ugly. He hasn't even the signs of a moustache or beard or eyebrows. Not because he shaved. God forbid, but simply because they would not grow. But for that again he had a pair of lips and a nose. Oh, what a nose! It was curved like a ram's horn. And he had a voice like a bull. He growled like a lion. Where did such a creature get such a terrible roar? And where did he get so much strength? When he took hold of you by the hand with his cold, bony fingers, you saw the next world. When he boxed your ears, you felt the smart for three days on end. He hated arguing. For the least thing, guilty or not guilty, he had one sentence: "Lie down." "'_Rebbe_,' Yossel-Yakov-Yossels thumped me." "Lie down." "'_Rebbe_,' it's a lie. He first kicked me in the side." "Lie down." "'_Rebbe_,' Chayim-Berrel Lippes put out his tongue at me." "Lie down." "'_Rebbe_,' it's a lie of lies. He made a noise at me." "Lie down." And you had to lie down. Nothing would avail you. Even Elya the red one, who is already "_Bar-mitzvah_," and is engaged to be married, and wears a silver watch--do you think he is never flogged? Oh yes! And how? Elya says he will be avenged for the floggings he gets. Some day or other he will pay back the "_Rebbe_" in such a way that his children's children will remember it. That's what Elya says after each flogging. And we echo his words. "Amen! May it be so! From your mouth into God's ears!" * * * We said our prayers with the teacher, as usual. (He never let us pray by ourselves because he thought we might skip more than half the prayers.) Mazeppa said to us in his lion's roar: "Now, children, wash your hands and sit down to the party. After grace I will let you go for a walk."