other, who was busy with the breakfast and the
younger children.

"Mother, today is '_L'ag Beomer_.'"

"A good '_Yom-tov_' to you. What do you want?"

"I want something for the party."

"What am I to give you? My troubles? Or my aches?"

So said my mother to me. Nevertheless, she was ready to give me
something towards the party. We bargained about it. I wanted a lot. She
would only give a little. I wanted two eggs. Said she: "A suffering in
the bones!" I began to grow angry. She gave me two smacks. I began to
cry. She gave me an apple to quieten me. I wanted an orange. Said she:
"Greedy boy, what will you want next?" And my friends on the other side
of the window were kicking up a row.

"Will you ever come out, or not?"

"Leib-Dreib-Obderick!"

"The day is flying!"

"Quicker! Quicker!"

"Like the wind."

After much arguing, I got round my mother. I snatched up my breakfast
and my share of the party, and flew out of the house, fresh, lively,
joyful, to my waiting comrades. All together we flew down the hill to
the "_Cheder_."

* * *

The "_Cheder_" was full of noise and tumult and shouting that reached to
the sky. A score of throats shouted at the one time. The table was
covered with delicacies. We had never had such a party as we were going
to have that "_L'ag Beomer_." We had wine and brandy, for which we had
to thank Berrel Yossel, the wine-merchant's son. He had brought a
bottle of brandy and two bottles of wine made by Yossel himself. His
father had given him the brandy, but the wine he had taken himself.

"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