bit!" interrupted Bucket, "for he is an upstart that rose from
being a petty landholder. But how haughtily he blows out his cheeks, pooh,
pooh, pooh; how high he holds his head! You remember, I invited him to my
daughter's wedding; I offered him drink, but he wouldn't take it; he said:
'I don't drink as much as you gentry; you gentry swill like bitterns.'
What a magnate! a milksop made of pastry flour!137 He wouldn't drink, so
we poured it down his throat; he cried, 'This is an act of violence!' Just
wait; I'll pour it into him out of my bucket!"

"The knave!" exclaimed Baptist; "I'll just sprinkle him on my own account.
My son used to be a clever lad; now he's turned so stupid that they call
him Buzzard,138 and he has become such a ninny all because of the Judge. I
said to him once, 'What do you run off to Soplicowo for? If I catch you
there, God help you!' Immediately he slunk off to Zosia again, and stole
through the hemp; I caught him, and then took him by the ears and
sprinkled him. But he blubbered and blubbered like a peasant's baby:
'Father, you may kill me, but I must go there!' and he kept on sobbing.
'What's the matter with you?' I asked, and he told me that he was in love
with Zosia, and wanted to have a look at her! I felt sorry for the poor
lad, and said to the Judge: 'Judge, give me Zosia for Buzzard.' 'She is
still too young,' he answered. 'Wait about three years, and then she may
do as she likes.' The scoundrel! He lies; he's already arranging another
match for her. I have heard of it; just let me screw myself in there at
the wedding, and I'll bless their marriage bed with my sprinkler."

"And shall such a scoundrel hold sway," cried the Warden, "and ruin
ancient magnates, better men than he? And shall both the memory and the
name of the Horeszkos perish! Where is there gratitude in the world? There
is none in Dobrzyn. Brothers, do you wish to wage war with the Russian
Emperor and yet do you fear a battle with Soplicowo farm? Are you afraid
of prison! Do I summon you to brigandage? God forbid! Gentlemen and
brothers, I stand on my rights. Why, the Count has won several times and
has obtained no few decrees; the only trouble is to execute them! This was
the ancient custom: the court wrote the decree, and the gentry carried it
out, and especially the Dobrzynskis, and thence grew your fame in
Lithuania! Yes, at the foray of Mysz the Dobrzynskis alone fought with the
Muscovites, who were led by the Russian