tranger.

The Justice and his daughter themselves brought in the food and laid it
on the table, which had been set in this room. There were chicken soup,
a dish of French beans and a long sausage, roast pork and plums, butter,
bread, and cheese, and, in addition, a bottle of wine. All this was put
on the table at the same time. The peasant too had left the horses and
come into the room. When everything was steaming on the table, which had
been laid for only two persons, the Justice politely invited the
clergyman to seat himself, and the latter, after saying grace, sat down,
as did likewise, a short distance away from him, the peasant.

"Do I not eat here too?" inquired the Hunter.

"Nay, God forbid!" answered the Justice, and the bride looked at him
from one side in amazement. "Only the Diaconus and the Colonus eat
here--you sit at the table with the Sexton outside."

The Hunter went into another room, opposite, after observing to his
surprise that the Justice and his daughter themselves attended to the
serving of this first and most aristocratic table. In the other room he
found the Sexton, his wife, and the maid, all standing around a table
which had been laid there, and impatiently awaiting, as it seemed, the
arrival of their fourth companion. The same eatables were steaming on
this table, except that the butter and cheese were missing and beer took
the place of the wine. The Sexton stepped with dignity to the head seat
and, keeping his eyes on the dishes, recited aloud the following verses:

The birds that fly, the beasts that crawl,
For man's behoof God made them all;
Chicken soup, beans, pork, plums and veal,
Are gifts divine--Lord bless the meal!

Thereupon the company sat down, with the Sexton at the head of the
table. The latter did not for a moment forget his solemn dignity, nor
his wife her basket, which she put down close beside her. The Pastor's
maid, on the other hand, had unassumingly set hers aside. During the
meal, which was piled up on the dishes in veritable mountains, not a
word was spoken. The Sexton gravely devoured portions that might be
called enormous, while his wife was not a great way behind him. Here
again it was the maid who showed herself to be most modest. As for the
Hunter, he confined his attention almost entirely to looking on; for the
day's ceremonies were not to his liking.

After the meal was over the Sexton, smirking solemnly, said to the two
maids who had waited on