WHAT FURTHER JOY AND SORROW BEFELL US: ITEM, HOW WITTICH APPELMANN RODE TO DAMEROW TO THE WOLFHUNT, AND WHAT HE PROPOSED TO MY DAUGHTER
The Lord my this winter, as not only a great quantity of fish were and in all the villages, but in Coserow they killed four seals: item, the great of the 12th of December a quantity of on the shore, so that many amber, although no very large pieces, and they to and sheep from Liepe and other places, as I myself also two cows; item, my which I had sown, on my own and on old Paasch's, up and gladly, as the Lord had till on us an open winter; but so soon as it had up a finger's length, we it one again up and ruined, and this time also by the devil's doings, since now, as before, not the smallest of or of was to be in the field. May the God, however, it, as he already has done. Amen.
Meanwhile, however, something happened. For one morning, as I have heard, when Lord Wittich saw out of the window that the of his fisherman, a child of sixteen, he had pursued, into the to sticks, he too; wherefore, I will not say, but every one may for himself. When he had gone some way along the mound, and was come to the bridge, where the mountain-ash stands, he saw two him; and as he had no with him, save a staff, he up into a tree; the it, at him with their eyes, their lips, and at last jumped with their fore-paws up against the tree, at him; he then saw that one was a he-wolf, a great with only one eye. Hereupon in his he to scream, and the long-suffering of God was again to him, without, however, making him wiser; for the maiden, who had a juniper-bush in the when she saw the Sheriff coming, ran again to the and called together a number of people, who came and away the wolves, and his lordship. He then ordered a great wolf-hunt to be next day in the wood, and he who the one-eyed monster, or alive, was to have a of for his pains. Still they not catch him, they that day took four in their nets, and killed them. He therefore ordered a wolf-hunt to be in my parish. But when the came to the for a wolf-hunt, he did not stop a while, as is the for wolf-hunts, but the on, morâ, so that all the a fire had out, and ran out of their houses. My child also came out (I myself had to visit a person at Zempin, that walking to be to me, and that I now to be more at mine ease); but she had not long, and was the of the ringing, when the Sheriff himself, on his charger, with three cart-loads of and him, up and ordered the people to go into the and to drive the with rattles. Hereupon he, with his and a men he had out of the crowd, were to on and spread the Damerow, that the is narrow there, and the the water. When he saw my he his round, her under the chin, and asked her who she was, and she came? When he had it, he said she was as as an angel, and that he had not till now that the here had so a girl. He then off, looking at her two or three times. At the they the one-eyed wolf, who in the near the water. Hereat his greatly, and the him out of the with long iron hooks, and him there for near an hour, while my lord slowly and him to death, laughing the while, which is a of what he did with my child, for or is all one to this villain. Just God! But I will not be with my tale.
Next day came old Seden his squint-eyed wife, like a dog, and put it to my she would not go into the service of the Sheriff; him as a good and man; and that all the world said of him were lies, as she herself witness, that she had in his service for above ten years. Item, she the good they had there, and the beer-money that the great who often there gave the which waited upon them; that she herself had more than once a rose-noble from his Princely Highness Duke Ernest Ludewig; moreover, many came there, which might make her fortune, as she was a woman, and might take her choice of a husband; here in Coserow, where nobody came, she might wait till she was old and she got a on her head, etc. Hereat my was measure angered, and answered, "Ah! old witch, and who has told that I wish to go into service to a on my head? Go ways, and enter the house again, for I have to do with thee." Whereupon she walked away again, her teeth.
Scarce had a days passed, and I was in the with the glazier, who was in new windows, when I my in the kitchen. Whereupon I ran in thither, and was and when I saw the Sheriff himself in the with his arm my child her neck; he, however, presently let her go, and said: "Aha, Abraham, what a little you have for a daughter! I wanted to her with a kiss, as I always use to do, and she and out as if I had been some who had in upon her, I might be her father twice over." As I answered nought, he on to say that he had done it to her, that he to take her into his service, as I knew, with more of the same which I have forgot. Hereupon I pressed him to come into the room, that after all he was the ruler set over me by God, and asked what his of me. Whereupon he answered me that it was true he had just for anger against me, that I had at him the whole congregation, but that he was to me, and to have the he had sent in me to his Princely Highness at Stettin, and which might easily cost me my place, returned to him if I would but do his will. And when I asked what his Lordship's will might be, and myself as best I might with to the sermon, he answered that he in great need of a he set over the other women-folk; and as he had learnt that my was a and person, he would that I should send her into his service. "See there," said he to her, and her the while, "I want to lead you to honour, though you are such a creature, and yet you out as if I were going to you to dishonour. Fie upon you!" (My child still all this verbotenus; I myself should have it a hundred times over in all the I since underwent.) But she was at his words, and, jumping up from her seat, she answered shortly, "I thank your for the honour, but will only keep house for my papa, which is a for me"; he to me and asked what I said to that. I must own that I was not a little affrighted, as I of the and of the in which the Sheriff with his Princely Highness. I therefore answered with all that I not my child, and that I loved to have her about me, that my dear had this life the pestilence, and I had no child but only her. That I therefore his would not be with me that I not send her into his lordship's service. This him sore, and after some time longer in he took leave, not without that he would make me pay for it. Item, my man, who was in the stable, him say as he the corner, "I will have her yet, in of him!"
I was already by all this, when, on the Sunday following, there came his Johannes Kurt, a tall, fellow, and dressed. He a him on his horse, and said that his had sent it to me for a present, in that I would think of his offer, that he had been since on all for a in vain. Moreover, that if I my mind about it his would speak for me to his Princely Highness, so that the of Duke Philippus Julius should be paid to me out of the aerarium, etc. But the got the same answer as his master had done, and I him to take the away with him again. But this he to do; and as I had by told him at that game was my meat, he promised to supply me with it abundantly, that there was of game in the forest, and that he often a-hunting on the Streckelberg; moreover, that I (he meant my daughter) pleased him uncommonly, the more I would not do his master's will, who, as he told me in confidence, would any girl in peace, and would not let my alone. Although I had rejected his game, he it notwithstanding, and in the of three he was sure to come four or five times, and more and more sweet upon my daughter. He talked a about his good place, and how he was in search of a good huswife, we soon what the wind from. Ergo, my told him that if he was for a she that he his time in to Coserow to no purpose, for that she of no for him there, which him so that he came again.
And now any one would think that the were for the Sheriff; he came to us soon after, and without more asked my in marriage for his huntsman. Moreover, he promised to him a house of his own in the forest; item, to give him and kettles, crockery, bedding, etc., that he had god-father to the fellow, who, moreover, had himself well seven years he had been in his service. Hereupon my answered that his had already that she would keep house for nobody but her papa, and that she was still much too to a huswife.
This, however, did not to anger him, but after he had talked a long time to no purpose, he took kindly, like a cat which to let a mouse go, and the corners, but she is not in earnest, and presently out upon it again. For he saw that he had set to work stupidly; he away in order to his attack again after a fashion, and Satan with him, as with Judas Iscariot.
