“It’s mine. You shall not have it.”
And he clenched his fists tight.
Claes shook the girl smartly by the ears and said to her:
“If you happen ever again to raise a brawl with your brother, who is as good and gentle as a lamb, I shall put you in a black coal-hole and there it will not be I that pull your ears, but the red devil out of hell, who will rend you in pieces with his long claws and his big forked teeth.”
At this threat the little girl, not daring now to look at Claes or to go near Lamme, took shelter behind her mother’s skirts. But as she went into the town she cried out everywhere:
“The coalman beat me: he has the devil in his cellar.”
However, she never struck Lamme again; but being tall, she made him work instead of her. And the kindly simpleton did it with a good will.
On his way back Claes had sold his catch to a farmer who usually bought it from him. And reaching home he said to Soetkin:
“Here is what I found in the belly of four pike, nine carp, and a basketful of eels.” And he threw two florins and a patard on the table.
“Why do you not go a-fishing every day, husband?” asked Soetkin.