United States or Lithuania ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Janetoun and one of her sisters-in-law were the only members of our party who had a hatchet to bury; and the burial was over so quickly being but an extra hug and an explosion of kisses that I should have known nothing about it but for the over-long tongue of Misè Fougueiroun: who, in a kindly way, is as thorough-going a gossip as ever lived.
At the arched entrance we found the farm family awaiting us: Old Jan, the steward of the estate, and his wife Elizo; Marius, their elder son, a man over forty, who is the active manager of affairs; their younger son, Esperit, and their daughter Nanoun; and the wife of Marius, Janetoun, to whose skirts a small child was clinging while three or four larger children scampered about her in a whir of excitement over the imminent event by which Christmas really would be ushered in.
At which everybody looked at Janetoun and laughed. In our seating a due order of precedence was observed. Old Jan, the head of the family, presided, with the Vidame and myself on his right and with Elizo's father and mother on his left; and thence the company went downward by age and station to the foot of the table, where were grouped the servants from the Château and the workmen on the farm.
The servers were Elizo and Janetoun, with Nanoun and Magali for assistants; and those four, although they took their places at the table when each course had been brought on, had rather a Passover time of it: for they ate as it were with their loins girded and with full or empty dishes imminent to their hands.
While our own more orthodox yule-log ceremonial was in progress, the good Elizo and Janetoun upon whom the responsibility of the supper rested evidently were a prey to anxious thoughts.
Word Of The Day