"Yes, you say so, Frau Pastorin; but if he doesn't see his dearest sitting in the ditch, he won't come down, and if we don't take him unawares, we may whistle for him, for he is a confoundedly long-legged, thin-ribbed hound, and we can never chase after him with our short legs and our corpulence."
That was true, to be sure; but no! should she go to a rendezvous? Bräsig was going quite too far, and, besides, how could she get Louise's clothes? But Bräsig was not dismayed, he represented to her that it was merely an interview with her own nephew, and that, if she sat on the edge of the ditch, she need only wear Louise's shawl, and her Italian straw hat: "But you must keep sitting, for, if you should stand up, he will see in a minute that you are a foot shorter than Louise, and that you are a foot larger round the waist."
Finally,--finally, the Frau Pastorin let herself be persuaded, and as she went out about eight o'clock that evening, through the back door, dressed in Louise's hat and shawl, the Herr Pastor, who stood at the window, in deep thought over his sermon, said to himself, "Good heavens! where is Regina going, with Louise's hat and shawl? And there comes Bräsig, out of the arbor. Well, he will come in, if he wants to see me; but it is very singular!"
The Frau Pastorin went along the garden walk with Bräsig prepared for any emergency, opened the garden gate, and went through it alone, while Bräsig remained in the garden, and ensconced himself behind the fence.
"Bräsig," said she, as the thought occurred to her, "you will be too far off here; come down with me to the ditch, for when I have caught him, I must have you close by."
"All right!" said Bräsig, and followed het down to the ditch.
Such a ditch, as this water-ditch was, is not often seen now-a-days; for out modern system of drains has made them unnecessary; but every old farmer remembers them, how they were dug through a field, sixteen or twenty feet from bank to bank, but narrow at the bottom, bordered right and left with thorn-bushes, nearly always dry, only in spring and fall there was perhaps a foot and a half of water; and occasionally in summer also, after a heavy rain. This was the case at present.
"Bräsig," said the little Frau Pastorin, "lie down behind that bush, close by me, so that you can come quickly to my help."
"Why not? all right," said Bräsig. "But, Frau Pastorin, you must think up some catch-word, upon which I shall break loose."
"Yes, surely. Yes, that is necessary; but what? Wait a moment! when I cry, 'The Philistines be upon thee,' then you must spring out."