"Well, now! listen all of you, for I shall examine you presently upon all that I have been telling you. Vismuthum is a powder, or rather a fluid, or perhaps 'twere better to say a powder of a--a quite indefinable colour. It is prepared in all sorts of ways, and has no particular odour, and in substance much resembles piskotum.[2] Everyone who partakes of it instantly becomes quite well again. First of all it is to be taken in a coffee spoon (his reverence will supply the spoon gratis), and then, if that has no effect, in a tablespoon. If that also has no effect, then two tablespoons must be taken, and so on in increasing doses, until the morbus leaves the patient altogether. It is to be had in the apothecary's shop at Kassa, so whoever does not go and get some has only himself to blame if he dies. Poor men will receive it gratis from Dr. Sarkantyús, and those who won't take it willingly will have it crammed down their throats by force, and it will be also sprinkled in all the wells of drinking water that the people may get some of it that way. It will therefore be much better to make the acquaintance of vismuthum in a friendly manner, than go to the devil one way or other for not taking it." [Footnote 2: Antimony.] The young people appreciated this last witticism and roared with laughter. One of Mr. Kordé's cubs took the liberty, however, of stretching out two fingers, which signified that he had a question to ask. "Well, Slipik, out with it!" "Mr. Rector, is the stuff sweetish like?" "Asine! have I not told you what it was? You have not been attending; hold out your paw!" The urchin got a smart rap on the palm of his hand with the ruler. "And now the other!" And so both hands smarted instead of his ears. "And now, Guszti Klimpa, stand out and repeat to these blockheads what I have been saying." Guszti Klimpa was the head boy, because his father rented the village pot-house, and he himself wore the best jacket of them all, so he was the master's favourite. The urchin hastily pocketed the pen-knife with which he had hitherto been carving his bench, blushed deeply in his embarrassment, and his eyes almost started from his head in his endeavours to find an answer to the question put to him. "Well, my son, come, what did I say now?" The lad took a plunge at random. "Nixnus is a fluid which becomes a powder, which, can be made from anything, and very much resembles a piskota."[3] [Footnote 3: Biscuit.] "_Bene, prœstanter, eminentissime._ Only not _piskota_ but _piskotum_;[4] not feminine, you know, but neuter gender, second declension." [Footnote 4: Antimony.] So Guszti Klimpa returned to his seat very well satisfied with himself.