for Mazeppa."

A great fear fell upon us.

"Fools, what are you afraid of?" he went on. "He is now like a dead
body, a corpse."

We trembled still more. Elya went on:

"Now we may do with him what we like. He flogged us the whole winter, as
if we were sheep. Let us take revenge of him this once, at least."

"What would you do to him?"

"Nothing. I will only frighten him."

"How will you frighten him?"

"You shall soon see." And he got up from the ground. He went over to
the teacher, took off his leather strap and said to us:

"See, we will fasten him to the tree with his own belt in such a way
that he will not be able to free himself. Then one of us will go over to
him and shout in his ear: "'_Rebbe_,' murderers!"

"What will happen?"

"Nothing. We will run away, and he will shout, 'Hear, O Israel!'"

"How long will he shout?"

"Until he gets used to it."

Without another word, Elya tied the "_Rebbe_" to the tree by the hands.
We stood looking on, and a shudder passed over our bodies.

Is this our teacher? Is this he whose glances we fear? Is this Mazeppa?

"Why do you stand there like clay images?" said Elya to us. "The Lord
has performed a miracle. Mazeppa has fallen into our hands. Let us dance
for joy."

We took hands and danced around the sleeping Mazeppa like savages. We
danced and leaped and sang like lunatics.

We stopped. Elya bent over the sleeping teacher and shouted into his ear
in a voice to waken the dead:

"Help, '_Rebbe_'! Murderers! Murderers! Murderers!"

* * *

We flew off together, like arrows from bows. We were afraid to stop a
moment. We were even afraid to look around us. A great dread fell upon
us, even upon Elya, although he never ceased from shouting at us:

"Donkeys, fools, animals! Why do you run?"

"Why do you run?"

"When you run I run too."

We got into the town full of excitement, and still shouting:

"Murderers! Murderers!"

When the people saw us running, they ran after us. Seeing them running
another crowd ran after them.

"Why are you running?"

"How are we to know? Others run, and we run too."

After some time, one of our boys stopped. And seeing him, we also
stopped, but still shouted:

"Murderers! Murderers! Murderers!"

"Where? Where? Where?"

"There, in the black forest, murderers beset us. They bound our teacher
to a tree, and God knows if he is still alive."

* * *

If you envy us because we are free, because we do not go to "_Ch