"Ha! will ye steal again? Take that for your pains, you robbers!"
Now when their Graces were tired laughing and looking at the fish hauled, they prepared to depart; but the schoolmaster prayed his Highness of Stettin yet again to take a schümer of fish for their supper, as their Graces were going to stop for the night in Uckermund.
"But what could I do with all the fish?" quoth the Duke.
To which the carl answered in his jargon—
"Eh! gracious master, give them to the plotz-eaters; that will be something new for them. Never fear but they'll eat them all up!"
Hereupon his Highness the Elector grew nettled, and cried out—
"Ho! thou damned peasant, thinkest thou we have no bley?"
"Well, ye've none here," replied the man cunningly.
So their Graces laughed, and ordered a couple of bushels of the largest to be placed upon the safety sleigh.
Now when they had gone a little farther and found the ice as smooth as glass, the henchman let loose the bear and the wolf-dogs after it. My stout Bruin first growls and paws the ice, then sets himself in earnest for the race, and, on account of his sharp claws, ran on straight for Uckermund without ever slipping, while the hounds fell down on all sides, or tumbled on their backs, howling with rage and disappointment.