The maids, who had already cleared off the table, then went out.  The Sexton sat down on a chair in the middle of the room, while the two women, his wife and the maid, took seats on either side of him, putting the newly-opened baskets down in front of them.  After the expectation which the faces of the three expressed had lasted for several minutes, the two maids re-entered, accompanied by their master, the Justice.  The first was holding aloft a roomy basket of wickerwork, in which some hens were anxiously clucking and flapping their wings.  She put it down in front of the Sexton, who glanced into it and counted: 

“One, two, three, four, five, six—­it is all right.”

Thereupon the second maid counted out from a large piece of cloth into a basket in front of the Pastor’s maid, three score eggs and six round cheeses, not without the Sexton’s carefully counting them all over after her.  After this was done, the Sexton said: 

“So then the Pastor is provided for, and now comes the Sexton.”

Thereupon thirteen eggs and a single cheese were put into the basket in front of his wife, who tested the freshness of each egg by shaking and smelling it, and rejected two.  After this proceeding the Sexton stood up and said to the Justice: 

“How is it, Justice, about the second cheese which the Sexton still has the right to expect from the farm?”

“You yourself know, Sexton, that the right to the second cheese has never been recognized by the Oberhof,” replied the Justice.  “This alleged second cheese was due from the Baumann estate, which more than a hundred years ago was united under one hand with the Oberhof.  Later on, the two were again divided, and the Oberhof is obligated for only one cheese.”

The Sexton’s ruddy brown face took on the deepest wrinkles that it was capable of producing, and divided itself into several pensive sections of a square, roundish or angular shape.  He said: 

“Where is the Baumann estate?  It was split up and went to pieces in the times of disturbance.  Is the Sexton’s office to be the loser on that account?  It should not be so!  Nevertheless, expressly reserving each and every right in the matter of the second cheese due from the Oberhof, and contested now for a hundred years, I hereby receive and accept one cheese.  In accordance with which the legitimate dues of the Oberhof to both Pastor and Sexton are paid, and now comes the good-will.”

The latter consisted of freshly-baked rolls, six of which were laid in the Pastor’s basket and two in the Sexton’s.  With that the entire ceremony was concluded.  The Sexton came closer to the Justice, and recited the following third effusion: 

  I find the six hens all correct,
  The cheeses too without defect;
  The eggs delivered are freshly laid,
  And all the dues were promptly paid. 
  And so the Lord preserve your farm
  From famine, fire, and other harm! 
  He is beloved of God and man
  Who pays his debts as best he can.