ich is
this. There are a good many people from Glogova here at the fair, so you
really might get the crier to go round and find out if they know
anything of the umbrella. If you would promise a reward for any
information, in an hour's time you will have plenty, I am sure. In a
small village like Glogova, every one knows everything."

"It is quite unnecessary," replied the lawyer, "for I am going to
Glogova myself. Thanks all the same."

"Oh, sir, it is I who have to thank you; you have behaved in a princely
fashion. Fifty florins for such a trifle! Why, I would have done it for
one florin."

The lawyer smiled.

"And I would willingly have given a thousand, Mr. Muencz."

And with that he walked away, past the stall where they were selling
nuts, and onions tied up in strings. Moricz stood gazing after him till
he was out of sight.

"A thousand florins!" he repeated, shaking his head. "If I had only
known!"

And off he went, driving his cow before him.

CHAPTER IV.

THE EARRING.

From the inn opposite Schramek's house lively sounds proceeded. I beg
pardon, I ought to call it "hotel," at least, that is the name the
inhabitants of Babaszek delighted in giving it, and the more
aristocratic of them always patronized it in preference to the other
inns. The gypsies from Pelsoec were there, and the sound of their lively
music could be heard far and wide through the open windows. Handsome
Slovak brides in their picturesque dresses, with their pretty white
headgear, and younger girls with red ribbons plaited into their hair,
all run in to join the dance, and if the room is too full, late-comers
take up their position in the street and dance there.

But curiosity is even stronger than their love of dancing, and all at
once the general hopping and skipping ceases, as Janos Fiala, the
town-servant and crier, appears on the scene, his drum hung round his
neck and his pipe in his mouth. He stops in front of the "hotel," and
begins to beat his drum with might and main. What can have happened?
Perhaps the mayor's geese have strayed? Ten or twelve bystanders begin
to ply him with questions, but Fiala would not for the world take his
beloved pipe out of his mouth, nor would he divulge state secrets before
the right moment came. So he first of all beat his drum the required
number of times, and then with stentorian voice, shouted the following:

"Be it known to all whom it may interest, that a gold earring, with a
gr