. . . . .
"Children, do you want to hear of a good plan that will rid us of our Gog-Magog?"
That was what one of the boys asked us on one of those melancholy moments already described. His name was Velvel Leib Aryas. He was a young heathen. When he was speaking his eyes gleamed in the darkness like those of a wolf. And the whole school of boys crowded around Velvel to hear the plan by which we might get rid of our Gog-Magog. Velvel began his explanation by giving us a lecture—how impossible it was to stand Boaz any longer, how the Ashmodai was bathing in our blood, how he regarded us as dogs—worse than dogs, because when a dog is beaten with a stick it may, at any rate, howl. And we may not do that either. And so on, and so on. After this Velvel said to us:
"Listen, children, to what I will ask you. I am going to ask you something."
"Ask it," we all cried in one voice.
"What is the law in a case where, for example, one of us suddenly becomes ill?"
"It is not good," we replied.
"No, I don't mean that. I mean something else. I mean, if one of us is ill does he go to 'Cheder,' or does he stay at home?"
"Of course he stays at home," we all answered together.
"Well, what is the law if two of us get ill?"