And Hirschalle began to tell the story. Berrel had got the little collecting box of "Reb" Mayer the "Wonder-worker," into which his mother threw a "_kopek_," sometimes two, every Friday, before lighting the Sabbath candles. Berrel had fixed his eyes on that box, on which there hung a little lock. By means of a straw gummed at the end, he had managed to extract the "_kopeks_" from the box, one by one. His mother, Slatte, the hoarse one, suspecting something wrong, opened the box, and found in it one of the straws tipped with gum. She beat her son Berrel. And after the whipping she had prevailed on the teacher to give him, he confessed that for a whole year--a round year, he had been extracting the "_kopeks_," one by one, and that, every Sunday, he had bought himself two little cakes, some locust beans, and--and so forth, and so forth. "Now, boys, pronounce judgment on him. You know how to do it. This is not the first time. Let each give his verdict, and say what must be done to a boy who steals '_kopeks_' from a charity-box, by means of a straw." The teacher put his head to one side. He closed his eyes, and turned his right ear to Hirschalle. Hirschalle answered at the top of his voice: "A thief who steals '_kopeks_' from a charity-box should be flogged until the blood spurts from him." "Moshalle, what is to be done to a thief who steals '_kopeks_' from a charity-box?" "A thief," replied Moshalle, in a wailing voice, "a thief who steals '_kopeks_' from a charity-box should be stretched out. Two boys should be put on his head, two on his feet, and two should flog him with pickled rods." "Topalle Tutteratu, what is to be done to a thief who steals '_kopeks_' from a charity-box?" Kopalle Kuckaraku, a boy who could not pronounce the letters K and G, wiped his face, and gave his verdict in a squeaking voice. "A boy who steals 'topets' from the charity-bots should be punished lite this. Every boy should do over to him, and shout into his face, three times, thief, thief, thief." The whole school laughed. The master put his thumb on his wind-pipe, like a cantor, and called out to me, as if I were a bridegroom being called up, at the synagogue, to read the portion of the Law for the week: "Tell me, now, my dear little boy, what would you say should be done to a thief who steals '_kopeks_' from a charity-box."