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."

We used to hold our "_L'ag Beomer_" party outside the town, in the open
air, on the bare earth, under God's sky. We used to throw crumbs of
bread to the birds. Let them also know that it is "_L'ag Beomer_" in the
world. But one does not argue with Mazeppa. When he told one to sit
down, one sat down, lest he might tell one to lie down.

"Eat in peace," he said to us, after we had pronounced the blessing.

"Come a