“You are rich,” said the old man, to whom an idle conversation, on a warm day, appeared agreeable; and he took with satisfaction a pinch from his box.
“Why do you say I am rich?”
“Your teeth are worth ten thousand gulden. I know many who would give ten thousand gulden to have them in their mouths.”
“Farewell, I have no time for joking.”
“Wait, I will go with you; but you must not run off so fast.”
Amrie helped the old man carefully to rise, when he said, “You are strong.” He had made himself heavier and more helpless than he really was. On the way he asked her, “To whom was her errand at the farm?”
“To the farmer and his wife.”
“And what would you have of them?”
“That I will tell themselves.”
“If you would ask a present, turn immediately back; the wife would willingly give, but she is mistress of nothing. The farmer is tough. He has a ramrod in his neck, and a stiff thumb to that.”