Shortly afterwards a cloud of dust arising from below the gardens declares that Master Jock is approaching.

No sooner are the carriages visible than they are welcomed by a thundering huzzah, which presently passes over into peals of merry laughter.

For Master Jock had hit upon the joke of dressing the gipsy Vidra in a splendid costume of cloth of gold, and making him sit in the family state-carriage drawn by four horses, while he himself came huddled up in a common peasant-cart immediately afterwards, and the honest country-folks loudly applauded the gold-bedizened costume till they perceived that there was only a gipsy inside it, whereupon the laughter grew louder still, which greatly amused the good gentleman.
With him came, besides his court jesters, those of his boon companions whom he liked the best.

Number one was Miska Horhi, the owner of an estate of five thousand acres or so at the other end of the kingdom, who would skip over to his crony in March and stay till August, simply to ask him who he thought would be the next vice-lord-lieutenant of the county, leaving word at home that the crops were to be left untouched, and nothing was to be done till he returned.

Number two was the famous Laczi Csenkoe, the owner of the finest stud in the _Alfoeld_, who, rather than tire his own beautiful horses, preferred to go on foot, unless he could drive in somebody else's conveyance.