"Yes, but these particulars have nothing to do with the subject in question," interrupted the young man.
"You will see, sir, that they will be useful to you."
"Well, perhaps so; but I don't see what they have to do with the umbrella."
"You will see in time, if you will listen to the rest of my tale. I heard in Podhrágy that he went from there to Abelova, so I went there too. From what I heard, I began to fear that my father was beginning to lose his senses, for he had always inclined toward melancholy. Here they told us that he had bought a lot of 'Angel Kreutzers' (small coins, on which the crown of Hungary is represented, held by two angels; they were issued in 1867, and many people wear them as amulets, and believe they bring luck) from the villagers for four kreutzers each; but later on I found I was mistaken in my surmise."
"How was that? Was he not yet mad?"
"No, for a few days later, two young Jews appeared in Abelova, each bringing a bag of 'angel kreutzers,' which they sold to the villagers for three kreutzers each, though they are really worth four."
"So it is possible ..."
"Not only possible, but certain, that the two young cheats had been told by the old man to buy up all the 'angel kreutzers' they could, and he thus became their confederate without knowing it. So it is very probable he may have been mad then, or he would have had nothing to do with the whole affair. From Abelova he went through the Viszoka Hor forest to Dólinka, but we could find out nothing about his doings, though he spent two days there. But in the next village, Sztrecsnyó, the children ran after him, and made fun of him, like of the prophet Elijah, and he, unfastening his pack (not the prophet Elijah, but my poor father), began throwing the various articles he had for sale at them. In fifty years' time they will still remember that day in Sztrecsnyó, when soap, penknives, and pencils fell among them like manna from heaven. Since then it is a very common saying there: 'There was once a mad Jew in Sztrecsnyó.'"
"Bother Sztrecsnyó, let us return to our subject."
"I have nearly done now. In Kobolnyik my poor old father was seen without his pack; in one hand he had his stick, in the other his umbrella, with which he drove off the dogs which barked at him. So in Kobolnyik he still had his umbrella you see."