appointed time, and obstinately procrastinated,
you must listen to the sentence. All those boys and girls brought up
within your premises must be taken into the country town and baptized
according to the ordinances of religion."

"Could not the matter be finished here at once by the spring?"

The magistrate was beside himself with anger. But the good lawyer only
smiled and said:

"Pray, sir, show a little common sense. The County Court compels none,
against his will, to be a Christian: still one must belong to some
religion. So if your lordship will not take the trouble to go with his
household to the 'pater,' well, we shall take him to the rabbi: that
will do just as well."

Topandy laughingly shook a menacing fist at the lawyer.

"You're a great gibbet! You always manage me. Well, let us rather go to
the 'pater' than to the rabbi; but at least let my servants keep their
old names."

"That is also inadmissible," answered the magistrate severely. "You have
given your servants names, of a kind not usually borne by men. One is
called Pirok,[23] another Czinke:[24] the name of one little girl--God
save the mark--is Beelzebub! Who would register such names as these?
They will all receive respectable names to be found in the Christian
calendar; and any one, who dares to call them by the names they have
hitherto borne shall pay as great a fine as if he had purposely
calumniated a fellow-man. How many are there whom you have kept back in
this manner from the water of Christianity?"

[Footnote 23: Chaffinch.]

[Footnote 24: Titmouse, names of birds given as pet names to these
servants.]

"Four butlers, three maid-servants and two parrots."

"Perjurer! Your every word is spittle in the face of the true
believers."

"Oh, gag me. I beg you to save me from perjury."

"Kindly call the people in question."

Topandy turned round and called to his butler who stood behind him:

"Produce Pirok, Estergalyos,[25] Sepruenyel,[26] then Kakukfue,[27] and
Macskalab;[28] comfort them with the news that they are going to enter
Heaven, and will receive a fur-coat, a pair of boots, and a good gourd,
from which the wine will never fail: all the gift of the honorable
County Court."

[Footnote 25: Turner.]

[Footnote 26: Broom.]

[Footnote 27: Thyme.]

[Footnote 28: Catsfoot.]

"For my part," said the young representative of the law, standing on
tip-toe, "I must ask you seriously to answer, with the moderation due to
our p