"By Saint Anschar, you shall become a smith! Now I see that you were really born to be one. Strange what mistakes one may make sometimes! You have developed a pair of fists since we last met, and one soon learns how to grasp a hammer!"
"It is certainly too hard for me, since I did not begin it when I was young," objected Sten.
"Hard? What the dickens! It is not harder than anything else—I mean for one who has the capacity. Listen! We will be good friends and have a fine time. The master sits the whole day in the beer-shop, and only you and I will be here."
Sten thought the proposal as good as any he was likely to meet with, and believed he would find a support in Claus. Accordingly he consented.
"Then we will go at once to the master of the guild of smiths at the journeymen's inn," said Claus.
Sten reminded him that he had said he occupied this office of master, but Claus replied he had given it up owing to having too much to do. They went therefore to the master, whose reception of Claus was so obviously disdainful that Sten on the spot lost a considerable amount of the respect he had felt for him. Meanwhile he was enrolled as an apprentice of the guild, and this new dignity of his was sealed by their drinking a number of mugs of beer in a public-house, and in the evening was ratified by Claus's master, who was the worse for drink. Sten slept that night at the smithy.
The next morning, while the matin-bell was ringing in the Ave Maria Convent, Sten was aroused by being violently shaken by Claus, who said: "Light the fire in the forge and tell me when it burns. I am going to doze a little longer."
Sten blew the fire and worked the bellows for half an hour. When at last it burnt up brightly, he woke Claus.
"Now put the iron in, and tell me when it gets red, I want still to have a wink or two," said Claus, turning to the wall.
When the iron was glowing as red as blood, Sten woke him again.