“Precisely, Herr Bœtsoi, you are right.”
“Have no fear. Joë Bœtsoi is an honest man; he will not take anything from your friends, since you leave him the game. As to accepting a reward from you—that depends. Can you swear to me, on your honor, that you are a rich young man, the child of a noble family?”
“What difference does it make?” said Christian.
“No, no,” resumed the danneman, “you have saved my life; I don’t say much about that, for I would have done as much for you; but you are a skilful marksman, and still more, you are a man who can listen to another. When I made you a sign over yonder, if you had not been willing to do what I wished, we should both of us have been in a bad way—and I especially, without my boar-spear, and with my arm not well wrapped up. I am very much pleased with you, and I only wish that my son was like you in looks and character, for you are both brave and gentle. So, if you are not rich, don’t pretend to me that you are. Why should you? I am not poor myself. In my plain house, such as it is, I want for nothing; and if you are in any need you can apply to Joë Bœtsoi. He would have no trouble at all in finding thirty dalers, or even a hundred, to render a service to a friend.”
“I am sure of it, Herr Bœtsoi,” said Christian, “and I may possibly return to you (and if I do it will be with entire confidence), not to ask you for a hundred or for thirty dalers, but to beg you to give me employment. I don’t say this is certain, but it may happen, and in that case I should come to you with much more pleasure if I pay you now what I owe you, and what a rich man would pay you. I did not come here in the character of a poor man; you do not owe me anything.”
“I don’t want any payment,” said the danneman; “take back your money, and come to me when you choose. What can you do?”
“Whatever you will teach me, I will do quickly.”
The danneman smiled.
“That is to say,” he said, “that you don’t know how to do anything.”
“I can kill bears, at any rate.”