"No," replied the old man after a time and looked at him absent-mindedly—"not this time."
"But," went on Hauke, "our dikes are no good!"
"What's that, boy?"
"The dikes, I say!"
"What about the dikes?"
"They're no good, Father."
The old man laughed in his face. "Is that so, boy? I suppose you are the child prodigy of Lübeck!"
But the lad would not allow himself to be confused. "The water-side is too steep," he said; "if it should happen again as it has already happened more than once we may all drown in here, behind the dike too."
The old man pulled his tobacco out of his pocket, twisted off a piece and pushed it in behind his teeth. "And how many barrows did you wheel today?" he asked crossly, for he saw that working at the dike could not cure the boy of working with his mind.