“That is no reason,” he said, “why thou shouldst give me the lie before all my workmen; canst thou not leave thy speaking until I have done, or else hold thy tongue altogether, which would be better still.”
“Smetse,” said his wife, “I never saw you so angry before. Do not beat me, my man, I will be henceforward as dumb as this cheese.”
“So you should,” said Smetse.
“But, my man,” said she, “canst not explain to me somewhat of all these happenings?”
“Sometime,” he said, and went back into his smithy.
VII. Of Smetse the Rich.
That day there came to Smetse many persons, both notable and common, nobles, priests, burgesses, and peasants, to give him orders for much work, and so it went on again on other days, and all through the year.
Soon the smithy became too small, and Smetse had to enlarge it by reason of the ever-growing numbers of his workmen. And the work which they did was so beautiful and so marvellously well done that the fame of it spread abroad to foreign and distant countries, and people came to see and admire it from Holland, Zeeland, Spain, Germany, England, and even from the land of the Turk.
But Smetse, thinking of the seven years, was not happy at all.