"And Freier," pursued Friedrich; "I know what would be a good employment for you--driving crabs to Berlin; a fellow like you would get on well at that."
"What do you mean?" asked Freier, more and more mystified.
"Oh, nothing," said Friedrich. "And now, good-morning, Freier. And if the Frenchman I am looking for should come by, just tell him, that I said, that you said, that your great grandmother had told you, when he said what he said, that you should say, that I had said he was not to call you an ass. And now good-bye, Freier."
"What?" said Freier, following him with his eyes as he went along the village, and turning round in his hands a stone of some thirty pounds weight; "What? He said, that I said, that you said, that I should say, he should not call me an ass? The cursed Prussian rascal! That's the way he always does." And he took the stone and threw it, with all his might--amongst the rest.
Friedrich goes further. Bailiff Besserdich looks out at his doorway. "Bailiff, have you seen a Frenchman pass by here this morning?"
"A Frenchman?" asked the bailiff. "Well, they are not so rare just now as all that; but this morning, do you say?"
"What, are you going to begin asking questions now?" said Friedrich. "I would rather tell you the story at once; it's the quickest plan." So he told him the story. "And," he concluded, "I must have him."
"That you must, Friedrich," said the bailiff. "And I will go with you; in fact it's what I'm appointed for; and our Herr Amtshauptmann said to me lately--'Besserdich,' said he, 'on you depends everything in Gülzow,' and he gave me a bundle of papers, and said, 'the matter is pressing.' Well, I got the summoner to read them to me, and when he had done, he said: 'The matter requires the greatest speed, bailiff.' 'No,' said I, 'I know better; the Herr Amtshauptmann told me the matter was pressing, and whenever he's said that to me before, I have always waited a full month first, and been ready in good time all the same!' And so I was that time. But, Friedrich, your business is not pressing, it 'requires the greatest speed.' I will just fetch my hat and then we will go."
This done, they set off. As they came out on the road at the other end of the village, the bailiff said--
"Friedrich, my Hans--you know the boy; he's now in his sixteenth year, but I thought I would have him at home for a year or so longer--he's keeping the sheep here in the rye-field; for, you see, I thought to myself my fodder has run short, and at this time of year they can get a meal for themselves in the fields, so I'll turn them out here;--he has perhaps seen the fellow."