He never came back. They said that he had lost his footing in the dusk, and fallen into the deep, reedy pool that lies beneath the steep bank where the river joins the lake. At any rate, he was found there, drowned and dead; and his death was that of old Lisbeth, too, for she never raised her head again after the news was brought to her.
The years rolled on, and young Dietrich, Johanna’s son, grew to be a man. The oak-tree, too, grew tall and strong, and overshadowed the little cottage.
Dietrich the second was a sober-minded fellow, and gave no heed to the maidens, nor could he be got to think of marriage till he was well on in life. He followed the calling of ferryman, and ferried people over the narrow end of the lake, just above the place where the river rushes out of it again. His mother disliked this work for him, and often tried to persuade him to give it up, but he had a fondness for the water. Once he filled her with a great fear.
“There must be something wrong with my hearing,” said he, “for I often fancy my name is called across the water, and I hurry back with my boat, but there is no passenger there.”
Johanna remembered how Lisbeth had told her that it was a voice calling from the water that had bewitched the boy’s father, and she determined her son should not fall a prey to the same fate.
“Dietrich,” said she, “thou must marry. Thou art past thirty now, and over grave even for thy years. I am getting old, and need help in the cottage, too.”
“Have it as thou wilt, mother,” he replied, with a sober smile; “only find me a red-haired maiden. I have ever had a fancy for red-haired women; I do not know whence I got it, for there are not many such hereabouts.”
His mother wondered at what seemed to her an idle speech, and one very unlike her grave son, but she thought little more of it, and presently told him she thought he could not do better than take their neighbour’s daughter Alice to wife; “for, if she is not red-haired,” she said, laughing, “she is red-cheeked, and as merry as a squirrel—a good mate for a grave fellow like thee.”
Dietrich said there was no hurry, but at last, for the sake of peace, he yielded, and was betrothed to Alice.