"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.