Page:Pontoppidan - Emanuel, or Children of the Soil (1896).djvu/63

 addition there was a plentiful supply of corn brandy and Bavarian beer. Although the guests had partaken of four solid meals at the same table in the course of the day and night, they attacked the food with good-will, and soon emptied both the decanter of brandy and the well-filled dishes. At the end of the meal, coffee was served with cognac.

In the middle of the meal the vet. broke out into a tremendous oath, and banged his glass on to the table so hard that the stem broke. He had suddenly remembered a sick cow he had promised to see in a neighbouring village, and to which he had been on the way when he dropped in at the parish councillor's in the morning.

Jensen, unfortunately, immediately on his arrival, proposed to send a message to the schoolmaster and the shopkeeper to come and have a game of cards; and as Aggerbölle was very hard up for a few kroner to pay his baker's bill, he had allowed himself to be talked over, in the hope that in a few hours he might win what he wanted. In the course of the game the sick cow as well as everything else went clean out of his head. This was by no means of rare occurrence with Aggerbölle. Every morning he left his home in a tiny, mud-bespattered gig, solemnly promising himself and his wife that he would visit all his patients. Seldom did he get further than the first farm where there was a prospect of cards and of winning some ready money. His life was a con-