
In a bleak Hungarian countryside, a widowed schoolmistress passes away, leaving behind only a toddler named Veronka, a goat, and a hen that is still being fattened. With no family to care for her, the small community faces the painful decision of what to do with the orphan and her meager possessions. The narrative opens with the mournful scene of the funeral and the desperate scramble for resources, painting a vivid picture of poverty and resilience.
The local magistrate, after a brief council, orders Veronka and her animals to be taken to the remote hamlet of Glogova, a place so isolated that even the nearest railway seems a distant dream. A creaking cart, packed with the child and her feathered companion, begins its slow trek across barren fields and forested hills, while the villagers watch with a mixture of pity and curiosity. Along the way, listeners hear the whispered hopes of those left behind and the quiet determination of a child thrust into an unknown world.
Language
hu
Duration
~6 hours (346K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
Hungary: Révai Testvérek, 1910.
Credits
Albert László from page images generously made available by the Google Books Library Project
Release date
2022-09-05
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1847–1910
A warm, sharp-eyed storyteller of village life and social ambition, he became one of the most admired Hungarian writers around the turn of the 20th century. His fiction blends humor, sympathy, and satire, turning everyday people and local worlds into memorable stories.
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