You sit down to meat and give no thanks to the dear Lord," and he threw back his head and sang out a portentously long Dutch grace through his nose.

Not content with this, he set to work to translate it to English, which took a good time; nor was the rendering a very finished one in the result.
The Vilderbeeste grinned sardonically and put in a pious "Amen," and then at last they were allowed to proceed with their dinner, which, on the whole, was not a pleasant meal.

But they could not expect much pleasure under the circumstances, so they ate their food and made the best of a bad business.

After all, it might have been worse: they might have had no dinner to eat..