them. Oh, how dreadful they were! If you had only
seen them! I won't go a step with them. As far as I am concerned, I
could walk home, but poor Madame Krisbay ..."

"Now that would be a nice sort of thing to do," remarked Mravucsan.
"Fancy my allowing my best friend's little sister to walk all the way
home with those tiny feet of hers! How she would stumble and trip over
the sharp stones in the mountain paths! And his reverence would say: 'My
friend Mravucsan is a nice sort of fellow to let my sister walk home,
after all the good dinners and suppers I have given him.' Why, I would
rather take you home on my own back, my dear, right into Glogova
parish!"

Veronica looked gratefully at Mravucsan, and Gyuri wondered, if it came
to the point, would Mravucsan be able to carry out his plan, or would he
have to be carried himself. The mayor was an elderly man, and looked as
though he were breaking up. He found himself glancing curiously at the
old gentleman, measuring his strength, the breadth of his chest, and of
his shoulders, as though the most important fact now were, who was to
take Veronica on his back. He decided that Mravucsan was too weak to do
it, and smiled to himself when he discovered how glad this thought made
him.

Mravucsan's voice broke in upon his musings.

"Well, my dear," he was saying, "don't you worry yourself about it; take
a rest first, and then we will see what is to be done. Of course it
would be better to have other horses, but where are we to get them from?
No one in Babaszek keeps horses, we only need oxen. I myself only keep
oxen. For a mountain is a mountain, and horses are of no use there, for
they can, after all, only do what an ox can, namely, walk slowly. You
can't make a grand show here with horses, and let them gallop and prance
about, and toss their manes. This is a serious part, yes, I repeat it, a
serious part. The chief thing is to pull, and that is the work of an ox.
A horse gets tired of it, and when it knows the circumstances it loses
all pleasure in life, and seems to say: 'I'm not such a fool as to grow
for nothing, I'll be a foal all my life.' And the horses round about
here are not much bigger than a dog, and are altogether
wretched-looking."

He would have gone on talking all night, and running the poor horses
down to the ground, if Gyuri had not interrupted him.

"But I have my dog-cart here, Miss Veronica, and will take you home with
pleasure."

"Will you really," exc