thoroughfare, in the presence of the
gaping rustics, on the flimsiest pretext, and bully him as if he were
the lowest of his menials.

Thomas Bodza totted up all these outrages on the back of his map, and
whenever he was immersed in that odd production, his eyes always
fastened themselves on three red crosses which he had marked over the
little town which indicated Hetfalu; and at all such times he would
heave a deep sigh, as if he found this long waiting for the day of
retribution almost too much for his patience.

For that a day of retribution would arrive sooner or later was his
strong belief.

Frequently, on popular festivals, you might notice on his index-finger a
rude iron ring (the handiwork of a blacksmith rather than of a jeweller,
from the look of it), the seal of which was engraved with the three
letters: U. S. S. On such occasions, anyone observing him closely could
have remarked that he carried his head higher than usual, and whenever
he was asked what these initial letters signified, he would simply shrug
his shoulders and say that he had got the ring from a comrade in his
student days, and really did not know _what_ the letters meant.

During vacation time he would regularly undertake long journeys on foot
into distant parts of the land, traversing no end of mountains and
valleys, and always returning home more surlily disposed towards the
lord of the manor than ever, at the same time dropping mysterious hints
in the presence of his confidants, and talking darkly of old
expectations being realised, of extraordinary forthcoming events, and of
important changes in the general order of things here below.

Nowadays people will scarcely believe that there are men whose whole
course of life is determined by such baseless and centrifugal ideas.
Such a species of human ambition is certainly a great rarity. It
resembles that cryptogram which goes by the name of "star-ashes," whose
tremulous spray-like masses only appear in rare seasons and odd places
after the warm summer rains. No ordinary soil is good enough for them.

At any rate, Mr. Thomas Bodza would have acted more wisely if he had
endeavoured to inoculate the minds of the faithful committed to his
charge with a little reading, a little writing, and some slight
knowledge of geography, ethnology, natural history, and fruit
cultivation, instead of assembling round him all the loafers of the
district in the pot-house, the meeting-house, at the hut of th