yata sobral dyengi
vezu prigatovi npiyedu tzarstvovatz," which means: "Have entered my
pupils for the next term, am bringing money, prepare the dumplings, I
come to reign." The mischief-makers declare that this telegram was
seized at Balta station, that Bath-sheba was sought and not found, and
that Fishel was sent home with the etape. Dreadful! But I can assure
you, there isn't a word of truth in the story, because Fishel never
sent a telegram in his life, nobody was ever seen looking for
Bath-sheba, and Fishel was never taken anywhere by the etape. That is,
he _was_ once taken somewhere by the etape, but not on account of a
telegram, only on account of a simple passport! And not from Balta, but
from Yehupetz, and not at Passover, but in summer-time. He wished, you
see, to go to Yehupetz in search of a post as teacher, and forgot his
passport. He thought it was in Balta, and he got into a nice mess, and
forbade his children and children's children ever to go in search of
pupils in Yehupetz.

Since then he teaches in Balta, and comes home for Passover, winds up
his work a fortnight earlier, and sometimes manages to hasten back in
time for the Great Sabbath. Hasten, did I say? That means when the road
_is_ a road, when you can hire a conveyance, and when the Bug can either
be crossed on the ice or in the ferry-boat. But when, for instance, the
snow has begun to melt, and the mud is deep, when there is no conveyance
to be had, when the Bug has begun to split the ice, and the ferry-boat
has not started running, when a skiff means peril of death, and the
festival is upon you--what then? It is just "nit guet."

Fishel the teacher knows the taste of "nit guet." He has had many
adventures and mishaps since he became a teacher, and took to faring
from Chaschtschevate to Balta and from Balta to Chaschtschevate. He has
tried going more than half-way on foot, and helped to push the
conveyance besides. He has lain in the mud with a priest, the priest on
top, and he below. He has fled before a pack of wolves who were
pursuing the vehicle, and afterwards they turned out to be dogs, and not
wolves at all. But anything like the trouble on this Passover Eve had
never befallen him before.

The trouble came from the Bug, that is, from the Bug's breaking through
the ice, and just having its fling when Fishel reached it in a hurry to
get home, and really in a hurry, because it was already Friday and
Passover Eve, that is, Passover eve fel