r the table.

Kutyfalvi was a big, strong brute of a man. He could take up three
bushel sacks of wheat with his teeth and fling them over his head; he
could bite a thaler piece in two; he could pull a wild horse to the
ground single-handed--all of which feats inspired his comrades with such
a respect for him that a very advanced stage of drunkenness was
necessary before even the strongest of them would venture a bout with
him, especially as all such foolhardiness generally resulted in the
monstrous Cyclops mangling his weaker antagonist out of all recognition.

No wonder, then, if every living soul in the room sighed, "Woe to thee,
Mike Kis!" when they beheld him draw down upon his devoted head the
wrath of this giant, who, infuriated at the failure of the
wine-swallowing experiment, now rushed upon him with open arms, in order
to pound him to pieces, pitching all the chairs out of his way as he
rushed along.

But the ennobled ostler was used to such encounters, and when his
antagonist had come quite close to him, he deftly ducked beneath his
arms, and then gave him a lesson in the stable dodge. With one hand he
caught hold of his opponent's collar, twisting it so tightly that he
gasped for breath, at the same time tripping up his legs, and then, with
the other hand, he threw him over his knee. That is the stable dodge,
which can be safely employed against even the strongest rowdies.

Meanwhile those of his cronies who ventured to peep back through the
doorway, heard a great bang as Bandi Kutyfalvi's huge carcase smote the
floor, and saw the big, powerful man lying motionless beneath his
opponent, who kept him down with his knee, and pummelled him from head
to foot, as he had been wont to pummel others when they quarrelled with
him in their cups. Every one was delighted that his turn had now come,
and when at last Mike Kis let go his collar and left him lying at full
length on the floor, they carried the avenger of their long years of
contumely round the room, and drank his health in bumpers till break of
day.

Kutyfalvi, however, whom, after this little joke was over, the servants
removed from the room and tucked up nicely in bed, dreamt that he fell
down from the top of a high mountain into a quarry, the jagged stones of
which smashed all his limbs into little bits, and, on waking, was
greatly astonished that he should still feel the effects of his dream.

From that day forth Mike Kis became Master Jock's prime