Luke asked John if it would be all right if Paul invited Ilonka to his house as a lunch guest. When Uncle John agreed to let her come, Luke then asked for her father’s permission. When he gave it, he then saluted him. Lydia then introduced Ilonka to Teresa. Neither one of them knew each other’s language, so they just smiled at each other.
As soon as they got to Uncle John’s house, Maria headed straight for the kitchen and all of the girls followed her. It wasn’t long before the girls started to bring the food out; ham, bacon, kielbasa, eggs, big round loaves of bread and freshly churned butter, cucumbers, potato salad, and quite a few bottles of wine. Once all of the food had been brought out, they began to eat. They enjoyed a massive feast and even let the kids drink some wine too. Paul and young Luke liked that very much. Teresa and Ilonka didn’t eat much, but the boys sure made up for it.
After lunch, Luke told the boys to take the carriage and have a look around the village. The girls were helping clear the table, but Paul and young Luke’s grandfather insisted that they go with the boys and enjoy themselves. The carriage driver then took them through the village so they could see everything. They came upon the guy that helped corral the bull. He and the girl that hugged Ilonka were holding hands walking down the road. Young Luke told the driver to stop and they offered them a ride. The boy’s name was John and the girl’s was Magda. They both spoke German. Teresa also spoke German, so she became their interpreter.
They had been gone for quite some time and they were approaching Ilonka’s house. She told them that she had to get home because she had chores she needed to get done. When they arrived at her house, her father was sitting outside on the porch smoking a pipe. They all got off the wagon and approached the sergeant and the three boys saluted him. Ilonka’s mother was cooking in the kitchen. She was making chicken soup and it smelled delicious. The girls went inside with Ilonka. She kissed her mother on the cheek and so did Magda and Teresa. Ilonka’s mother put her to work right away fetching some water. Paul went with her and carried in some wood. They had a lot of wood, but very little was chopped, so young Luke started chopping some up. Ilonka’s mother then told her that she needed to change out of her good clothes so they wouldn’t get ruined. While she was changing, Paul started to haul the chopped wood inside the house. While he was inside, he lifted up the soup lid and smelled the soup. Ilonka’s mother laughed.
Once all of the wood had been chopped, young Luke and Paul stacked it up real nice. Ilonka came out in her old dress and started heading for the barn holding a bucket. She was going to milk their cow. Paul took the bucket from her, sat on the stool, and started milking the cow while Ilonka gave it some cracked corn to eat. Ilonka laughed and ran in the house to get her mother. They came back out and saw Paul milking away and the two of them laughed. Magda told Teresa that in Hungary boys didn’t milk cows, only girls, so this is why they thought it was so funny. They had never seen a boy milk a cow before. Paul asked Magda who milked the cow if there were only boys in the family. He must have said the right thing, because the girls were then told to go and catch another rooster. They had just been invited to stay for chicken soup.
Paul took in the milk and saw the other bucket on the table with a straining cloth on top of it. Ilonka’s mother held the cloth over the bucket and motioned for Paul to pour the milk over it. Just then a shot went off. The sergeant jumped up and ran to see what was going on. Magda told him that they couldn’t catch the rooster so young Luke pulled his gun and shot its head off. He looked around Magda and saw Ilonka walking towards them holding the headless rooster. Ilonka and Magda took turns plucking the feathers and Paul took all of the insides out and fed them to the pigs.
Big Luke showed up with Lydia and a bottle of wine. He had stopped by to visit the sergeant. The sergeant told him about young Luke shooting the rooster’s head off. Luke told the sergeant that both boys real good with guns, and they were also real safe with them too.
Lydia went inside and greeted the sergeant’s wife, Gizike Nény. They went outside and sat on the steps by the girls. Teresa told her mother that Magda spoke German, so Lydia started speaking to Magda in German. Magda was very intelligent. She was able to translate Hungarian to German so that Lydia could communicate with Gizike Nény and the sergeant.
After Paul cut up the rooster, he took it into the kitchen and Ilonka added it to the chicken soup that was cooking on the stove.
Uncle John came over with another bottle of wine and the three men went out to the back porch table and started telling each other big tales.
Young Luke cut a small log and took it over to Magda. She picked it up and got a splinter in her finger. Luke tried to get it out but couldn’t, so he took her inside the house. Paul pulled his 8-inch knife off his belt and got the splinter out in no time. Luke then kissed her finger like she was a little girl. Magda smiled at him and even blushed a little. She thought it was a sweet gesture.
Magda asked Paul what he was going to do with such a huge knife. He told her, “I plan on going bear hunting.” And everybody laughed once Teresa translated what he had said.
A while later Gizike Nény called everyone inside to eat. They all sat down and enjoyed a wonderful meal together. They all loved soup. Paul noticed that he had a chicken heart in his soup, so he fished it out and put in on Ilonka’s plate. They both laughed. They were all having a really nice time.
After they finished, the girls cleaned everything up and Paul went to get some more water and the other boys finished stacking the rest of the wood.
Before going home, Uncle John told young John and Magda that he wanted to speak to them. He told them that the two of them were in charge of teaching young Luke, Paul, and Teresa Hungarian. Uncle John told young Luke and Paul that they were welcome to stay with him that night and they agreed that they would. Paul, young Luke, and Teresa were talking and they had decided that they wanted to go to school the next morning with Ilonka, John, and Magda. They wanted to see what it was like.
Before they left the sergeant’s place, Paul carried another load of wood into the house. He then told the sergeant and his family goodnight and thanked them for the lovely meal. On his way out, he grabbed the milk bucket and set it on the back porch. They all knew what that meant.
The next morning after Paul finished his slice of bread and glass of milk at Uncle John’s, he went over to Ilonka’s early to milk the cow. Gizike Nény and Ilonka were already up. After he finished milking the cow, he brought in the milk and strained it. Gizike Nény had made him a 6-egg omelet and he sat down and ate. After he had finished the 6 eggs, she then gave him a big slice of buttered bread. After he finished that, he brought another armload of wood into the house and filled the water bucket.
Young Luke had gone to get Teresa and they met up with Paul and Ilonka at Ilonka’s house. It was still early, so they went out and started to brush and groom the sergeant’s horse. When the sergeant stepped outside, both boys saluted him. He saw that the boys were doing a fine job.
After they had finished brushing the horse, they went over to Magda’s and picked her up and the five of them headed off to school.
When they got to school, they met up with John and all sat together. The teacher handed Teresa a German book and gave the two boys Hungarian books. She told Magda and John that they would be helping the two boys.
At lunch time Lydia was waiting for them. She told all six of them that Uncle John had lunch waiting for them at his house, so they all went over there to eat. They were also told that they would be eating supper at Uncle John’s too. Lydia told them that they were having goulash.
The teacher gave them some math homework, so after school they went to Magda’s house to work on it. Lydia went with them too. Magda sat them all down and gave them a piece of paper. She then started to explain the problem to Teresa in German and told her how to solve it. Lydia sat down next to Paul and paid real close attention as Magda tried to explain to Pau
l how to do it, and John was working with young Luke. After Teresa figured out how to do it, she helped young Luke.
When they had finished their work, Lydia asked Magda where her tea kettle was. She wanted to make everyone some tea. Magda was embarrassed. She told Lydia that their tea kettle had a hole in it and they only had two cups. Lydia didn’t miss a beat; she pulled a 20 dollar gold piece out of her pocked and told Paul to go to the store and bring back a kettle and set of cups with saucers. Paul reached for Ilonka’s hand and away they went.
When they reached the store they found everything they needed. They had a nice tea set so he bought it. He also bought two kilos of Russian tea and five kilos of sugar. They then headed back to Magda’s house. Magda didn’t know what to think, but she was very grateful, nonetheless. Ilonka was very happy for her friend.
Paul asked Magda who the land belonged to behind the chicken house. She had Linda tell Paul that everyone with a house had 60 to 80 acres that they could farm for themselves. Paul then asked her if she had ever used it. She told him that her mother used a small part of it. Paul then asked Ilonka if her family used their acreage. She told him that they hadn’t used it for a long time. Luke wanted to know what they planted in the spring. John told them that they could plant everything they had seed for. Ilonka told him that they could get seed from the store but they had to pay it back after harvest. Usually people planted corn and potatoes or a pasture they could cut for hay. Paul and Luke thought this sounded great. If they could get a good team they could plow and plant as soon as the ground was ready.
The boys talked to Big Luke about this when he came by to pick up Lydia. He suggested that the boys haul the manure out where they wanted to spread it on the areas that they wanted to plow and let it sit a while before they began plowing.
The following day the boys went to see Uncle John and asked him for a team of horses and a wagon. Uncle John told them that Gizike Nény had an old wagon behind the pigpens. He told the kids to roll the wagon over to the wheel write and have him restore it back to working order.
All six kids pushed the wagon over to the wheel write that evening. When Gizike Nény heard that the boys wanted to haul the manure out of her manure pile she was happy.
The kids went to Magda’s every day after school to do their homework and so did Lydia. Magda had papers in front of Lydia so that she could learn to learn to write in Hungarian.
It was Friday after their learning session when Lydia informed the girls that the following Monday they would be going to Nagyvárad to get their dresses made for her wedding. She told the boys that the tailor would be coming to the village to measure them for their suits. She told Teresa and Ilonka that they would be bridesmaids and the boys would escort them.
“Who will be the maid of honor?” Teresa asked.
Lydia looked at Magda with a smile and stated, “Magda will stand next to me. She will be my maid of honor.”
Magda looking surprised said, “I can’t do that. I am a nobody.”
Lydia grabbed her by the hand and said, “You are now my daughter and you are wonderful. You are definitely not a nobody.”
When they went to the store the storekeeper had quite a few boxes of chocolates for sale. Paul bought a box and handed them out to everyone. A little girl who was about 4 years old saw Paul handing out the chocolates and asked him if she could have one. Paul walked over to her and gave her a piece. She smiled at him and took the chocolate. After she finished eating it, she stated that she was still hungry. Magda asked her where her mother was. The little girl told her that her mother was sleeping.
Magda asked her, “Did your mother milk the cow this morning and give you some milk?”
“No, she’s asleep,” replied the girl.
Magda saw big John riding by and went out and told him, “Your Lordship, something is wrong with this little girl’s mother. Please go and check on her.”
John rode over to the little girl’s house and found her mother lying in bed; she was dead. He went and got the doctor and Father Tony. A while later Father Tony went to the store and told Magda that, Tilda, the little girl’s mother was dead. He told Magda to keep the little girl with her. They were going to bury Tilda right away.
The kids went over to Gizike Nény’s house and took little Tilda with them. Gizike Nény gave her a slice of bread and butter and a glass of milk. Little Tilda was happy.
Gizike Nény wanted to help Magda with little Tilda. She went outside with the milk bucket and when she came back inside she told Magda that she had talked to the sergeant and he told her that they would send their milk cow with Magda’s so that the little girl would have some milk, and the boys would take some hay over to her house for the cow.
Big Tilda was buried that evening and the six kids now became seven. Little Tilda usually sat on Paul’s lap. He was her favorite.
Uncle John told young Luke and Paul that he had some hay they could take over to Magda’s for the cow as well. He would make sure that the cow had plenty to eat.
Little Tilda slept with Magda that night. The next morning Magda had milked the cow by the time the others had gotten there. The boys went to get two days’ worth of hay for the cow. After they had finished, they all headed over to Ilonka’s house and sat out on her front porch and were wondering what they were going to do that weekend.
Sergeant Puskás was across the street with two boys that were Magda’s neighbors. He had the boys whitewashing the widow’s and orphan’s houses. Magda hated them. She said that they were thieves. They stole her watermelons the previous summer and had been stealing her chickens. Ilonka stated that her father had had nothing but trouble with the boys. Her father was in charge of all of the widows and orphans and he put the boys to work whitewashing their houses. The boys were talking to the sergeant, obviously trying to stall their work, when one of them pretended to sprain his ankle. Both boys then rested their brushes against the window and made a big mess. The uninjured boy then pretended to help his injured counterpart and the two of them started walking home. Just when the sergeant was ready to go after the boys young Luke spoke up and said, “Paul, you ever whitewash a house before?”
Paul answered, “No, but let’s give it a try. It can’t be that hard.”
They both got up from the porch and started across the street with John following right behind them. They saluted the sergeant, picked up the brushes, and started to paint with the lime wash. Magda and Ilonka got some rags and cleaned up the windows. The sergeant just smiled. John asked him for another brush and he went and got him one.
Ten minutes later the sergeant came out to check on the kids and one whole side of the house was almost finished. He watched the three boys for a little longer and then went back across the street and lit up his pipe. He told Ilonka to make sure she took the boys some water because they were working hard and would be real thirsty.
An hour later, they had finished everything but the front of the house and had started in on it. The woman that lived in the house came out and saw what a good job they were doing. She was so pleased with them and their hard work. The girls were still working on cleaning her windows as well.
Big John came riding down the street and saw the boys working on the house. He walked over to the sergeant and asked him where he buried the other boys who had been assigned to work on the house. The sergeant laughed and told him, “If those two boys would have been assigned to me in the Hussars they would be dead all right.”
John said, “I have another job for those two. They’re going to be spreading manure.”
“One of them pretended to sprain his ankle and the other helped him home,” the sergeant informed him.
“Well, it looks like you have a good crew. Keep up the good work,” John told the sergeant. He then waved at the boys as he rode down the street.
When the boys finished, they asked Teresa where the next house that needed to be painted w
as. The sergeant pointed down the street and said, “Éva Nénis’ house is next.”
The boys carried all of the tools and buckets to her house. Paul poured the remaining wash into his bucket and told the other two to get some more lime, so the two boys went to get more. Paul started to paint the front of Gizike Nény’s house. She came outside and overheard the sergeant telling the girls they needed to tell Paul that he was painting the wrong house; he was supposed to paint the one next to it. Gizike Nény told the sergeant that Paul was doing a fine job and to leave him alone. She was more than happy to have the front of her house painted.
When the other boys came back, they mixed the lime with some water. John knew how it was done; he’d done it many times before. The two boys started on Éva Nénis’ house.
After Paul had finished painting the front of Gizike Nény’s house, he went to help the other two on the house they were working on. A woman from across the street came out carrying two chickens whose heads had been cut off and handed them to the girls. She told them that it was for the fine job the boys had done on her house.
Paul saw the chickens and yelled, “Chicken paprikash!”
Gizike Nény heard Paul and said, “Chicken paprikash it is.” She then went inside the house and started to make the noodles. She had little Tilda with her and was trying to keep her out of the way.
For lunch, they went over to big John’s. Big Luke came by and asked how they were doing and stayed and ate lunch with them. Paul asked if they could paint on Sunday, but John told them Sundays were not for working.
Paul told him, “The church needs some whitewash. What if we start with that?”
Big Luke laughed and said, “They could probably get away with that all right.”
Paul and young Luke talked it over with the men as Teresa translated for them. They said that after they finished Eva Nénis’ house and the rest of Gizike Nény’s house, they would start on the church right after the services that next Sunday. The men agreed to the plan.
The Nagyvradi Brothers Page 14
