s mounted their steeds. All were gay and talkative, except
the Assessor and the Notary, who were more testy than the day before,
quarrelling over the merits of that Sanguszko gun and that Sagalas musket
from Balabanowka. The Count and Thaddeus also rode on in no merry mood,
being ashamed that they had missed and had retreated; for in Lithuania
whoever lets a bear get through the circle of beaters must toil long
before he repairs his fame.

The Count said that he had reached the pike first, and that Thaddeus had
hindered him from encountering the beast; Thaddeus maintained that, being
the stronger, and the more skilful in work with a heavy pike, he had
wished to relieve the Count of the trouble. Such nipping words they said
to each other, now and again, in the midst of the cries and uproar of the
train.

The Seneschal was riding in the middle; the worthy old man was merry
beyond his wont and very talkative. Wishing to amuse the quarrelsome
hunters and to bring them to an agreement, for their benefit he concluded
his story of Dowejko and Domejko:--

"Assessor, if I wanted you to fight a duel with the Notary, don't think
that I thirst for human blood; God forbid! I wanted to amuse you, I
wanted, so to speak, to arrange a comedy for you, to renew a conceit that
I invented forty years ago, a splendid one! You are younger men, and do
not remember about it, but in my time it was famous from this forest to
the woods of Polesie.

"All the animosities of Domejko and Dowejko proceeded, strange to say,
from the very unfortunate similarity of their names. For when, at the time
of the district diets,89 the friends of Dowejko were recruiting partisans,
some one would whisper to a gentleman, 'Give your vote to Dowejko'; but
he, not hearing quite correctly, would give his vote to Domejko. Once
when, at a banquet, the Marshal Rupejko proposed a toast, 'Vivat Dowejko,'
others shouted 'Domejko'; and the guests sitting in the middle did not
know what to do, especially considering one's indistinct speech at dinner
time.

"That was not the worst: once a certain drunken squire had a sword fight
in Wilno with Domejko and received two wounds; later that squire,
returning home from Wilno, by a strange chance took the same boat as
Dowejko. So, when they were journeying along the Wilejka in the same boat,
and he asked his neighbour who he was, the reply was 'Dowejko.' Without
further ado he drew his blade from under his winter coat; slash, sla