Claes replied:
“Not to be fish myself in the nets of the constables.”
IV
At Damme they called Ulenspiegel’s father Claes the Kooldraeger or coalman: Claes had a black fell, eyes shining bright, a skin the same colour as his wares, except on Sundays and feast days, when there was great plenty of soap in the cottage. He was short, square, and strong, and of a gay countenance.
When the day was ended and the evening shadows were falling, if he went to some tavern on the Bruges road, to wash out his coal-blackened gullet with cuyte, all the women taking the cool air on their doorsteps would call out a friendly greeting:
“Good even and clear beer, coalman!”
“Good even and a wakeful husband,” Claes would reply.
The lasses coming back from the fields in troops used to plant themselves all in front of him so as to prevent him from going on, and would say:
“What will you give for your right of way: scarlet ribbon, gilt buckle, velvet shoon, or florin in the pouch?”