Okhrim could say no more. The sobs stuck in his throat and choked him.
I must tell you the real truth, children. I would rather Okhrim with the strong arms had beaten me, than have got what I did from my mother, before "Shevuous," and what the teacher gave me after "Shevuous." ... And the shame of it all. I was reminded of it all the year round by the boys at "Cheder." They gave me a nickname—"The Gardener." I was Yossel "the gardener."
This nickname stuck to me almost until the day I was married.
That is how I went to gather greens for "Shevuous."
Another Page from "The Song of Songs"
"Quicker, Busie, quicker!" I said to her the day before the "Shevuous." I took her by the hand, and we went quickly up the hill. "The day will not stand still, little fool. And we have to climb such a high hill. After the hill we have another stream. Over the stream there are some boards—a little bridge. The stream flows, the frogs croak, and the boards shake and tremble. On the other side of the bridge, over there is the real Garden of Eden—over there begins my real property."
"Your property?"
"I mean the Levada—a big field that stretches away and away, without a beginning and without an end. It is covered with a green mantle, sprinkled with yellow flowers, and nailed down with little red nails. It gives out a delicious odour. The most fragrant spices in the world are there. I have trees there beyond the counting, tall many-branched trees. I have a little hill there that I sit on when I like. Or else, by pronouncing the Holy Name, I can rise up and fly away like an eagle, across the clouds, over fields and woods, over seas and deserts until I come to the other side of the mountain of darkness."
"And from there," puts in Busie, "you walk seven miles until you come to a little stream."
"No. To a thick wood. First I go in and out of the trees, and after that I come to the little stream."