And it was merry to behold this solemn messenger of good luck wandering about the cottage on her long stilts.
LI
Now the bad days were come again; Claes was working alone and sadly on the land, for there was not work enough for two. Soetkin stayed in the cottage alone, dressing in every possible way the beans that were their daily fare, in order to liven her man’s appetite. And she went singing and laughing so that he should not suffer to see her sad. The stork stayed close beside her, mounted on one leg and beak buried in her feathers.
A man on horseback stopped before the cottage; he was all arrayed in black, very lean, and had an air of profound sadness.
“Is there any one within?” he asked.
“God bless Your Melancholy,” answered Soetkin; “but am I, for one, a phantom that seeing me here you should ask if there is any one within?”
“Where is your father?” asked the horseman.
“If my father’s name be Claes, he is out yonder,” answered Soetkin, “and you see him sowing corn.”
The horseman went away, and Soetkin, too, all downcast, for she must go for the sixth time to fetch bread from the baker’s without paying for it. When she came back thence with empty hands, she was astonished to see Claes coming back to their house, triumphant and lordly, upon the horse of the man in black, who was going afoot beside him and holding the rein. Claes was proudly holding in one hand against his thigh a leathern wallet that seemed well stuffed.