rs to it; and whenever the
goodman made his exit at the one door, somebody else entered by the
other.

At another house, whenever the master came home late, his wife laid
his dinner outside, upon the millstone table, with the servants; and
the best of the matter was, that with this too familiar exception, he
was held in vast respect by the whole household.

All this was very well to contemplate from a distance; but I happened
at last to stumble upon something, a nearer view of which would have
been by no means disagreeable to me.

Our next neighbour was my excellent uncle, Gergely Sonkolyi. His house
was pretty ancient; and I remember, in my childish days, pulling the
reeds[49] out of the roof to look for sugar. In those days the walls
were painted partly blue and partly yellow; but afterwards the old man
had them all rough-cast, and then it was not necessary to paint them
again.

[Footnote 49: Reeds--_nad_. Cane sugar is called _nad czukor_.]

The house lay below the garden, and there were little plots before the
windows, which were always filled with bouquets of musk and carrot
flowers; and from a square hole in the roof sundry bunches of pepper
blushed forth, in the warlike vicinity of an outstretched scythe.

Several large mulberry trees in the court-yard formed a roosting-place
for the poultry; and opposite the kitchen door was the entrance to the
wine-cellar, over which hung a variety of pumpkins. Beyond this was a
large pigeon-house, farther on a pig-sty, then a two-yard measure,
then a draw-well; while various implements of industry appeared in the
perspective--such as ploughs, harrows, waggons, &c. And if to all
these I add nine dogs, two speckled bullocks, and a flock of geese, I
have before me a very perfect view of my Uncle Sonkolyi's court-yard.

The nine dogs kept watch at the entrance when my uncle was not
hunting, feasting in imagination upon the savoury odour of
gulyas-hus[50] which issued from the grated door of the kitchen, where
a large fire burned incessantly in the broad grate, with various huge
pots hissing among the flames, while a squadron of linen servants,[51]
each one redder than the other, hurried to and fro under the direction
of old Mrs. Debora.

[Footnote 50: The herd's meat; a hash composed of beef, with various
spices, and a quantity of onions and pepper.]

[Footnote 51: The kitchen-maids and boys wear linen dresses, and wide
linen drawers.]

Beyond the kitchen were several