“Goodwives,” answered Nele, “say to the young men that seek after me: ‘Nele’s heart is not here, but with him that wandereth to deliver the land of our fathers.’ And if I am fresh, even as you say, it is no gift of a witch, but the gift of good health.”
The goodwives replied:
“All the same, Katheline is suspect.”
“Do not believe what ill folk say,” answered Nele; “Katheline is no witch. The law-men burned tow upon her head and God struck her with witlessness.”
And Katheline, nodding her head in a corner where she was sitting all huddled up, said:
“Take away the fire; he will come back, my darling Hanske.”
The goodwives asking who was this Hanske, Nele replied:
“It is the son of Claes, my foster brother, whom she thinks she lost since God struck her.”
And the kindly goodwives gave silver patards to Katheline. And when they were new she showed them to someone that nobody could see, saying:
“I am rich, rich in shining silver. Come, Hanske, my darling; I will pay for my love.”