“Have no fear,” replied the Hunter.  “But I should like to know—­”

“Everything afterwards!” whispered the clergyman, glancing toward the door, which the Justice was just then re-entering.  He retreated from the Hunter just as from a stranger.

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 the table: 

“Now, if it please God, we will receive our legitimate dues and the good-will accompanying them.”