that night, seeing that as yet we had no more beds than v bought for our own need from old Zabel Nering the ranger his widow, at Uekeritze. Wherefore she took me What was to be done? My bed was in an ill plight, her godchild having lain on it that morning; and she could no put the young nobleman into hers, although she would will creep in by the maid herself. And when I asked her why she blushed scarlet, and began to cry, and would not show self again the whole evening, so that the maid had to see to thing, even to the putting white sheets on my child's bed fo young lord, as she would not do it herself. I only tell th show how maidens are. For next morning she came int room with her red silk boddice, and the net on her hair, the apron; summa, dressed in all the things I had bought at Wolgast, so that the young lord was amazed, and talked m with her over the morning meal. Whereupon he took his le and desired me to visit him at his castle.

CHAPTER XII.

What further joy and sorrow befel us: item, how Wittich Appelmann rode to Damerow to the wolf-hunt, and what he proposed to my daughter. THE Lord blessed my parish wonderfully this winter, inasmuch as not only a great quantity of fish were caught and sold in all the villages, but in Coserow they even killed four seals; item the great storm of the 12th of December threw a goodly quantity of amber on the shore, so that many found amber, although no very large pieces, and they began to buy cows and sheep from Liepe and other places, as I myself also bought two cows; item my grain which I had sown, half on my own field and half on old Paasch's, sprung up bravely and gladly, as the Lord had till datum bestowed on us an open winter; but so soon as it had shot up a finger's length, we found it one morning again torn up and ruined, and this time also by the devil's doings, since now, as before, not the smallest trace of oxen or of horses was to be seen in the field. May the righteous God, however, reward it, as indeed he already has done. Amen.

Meanwhile, however, something uncommon happened. For one morning, as I have heard, when lord Wittich saw out of the window that the daughter of his fisherman, a child of sixteen, whom he had diligently pursued, went into the coppice to gather dry sticks, he went thither too; wherefore, I will not say, but every one may guess for himself. When he had gone some way along the convent mound, and was come to the first bridge, where the mountain-ash stands, he saw two wolves, coming towards him; and as he had no weapon with him, save a staff, he climbed up into a tree; whereupon the wolves trotted round it, blinked at him with their eyes, licked their lips, and at last jumped with their fore-paws up against the tree, snapping at him; he then saw that one was a he-wolf, a great fat brute with only one eye. Hereupon in his fright he began to scream, and the longsuffering of God was again shown to him, without, however, making him wiser; for the maiden, who had crept behind a juniper-bush in

the field, when she saw the Sheriff coming, ran back again t castle and called together a number of people, who came drove away the wolves, and rescued his lordship. He ordered a great wolf-hunt to be held next day in the co wood, and he who brought the one-eyed monster, dead or a was to have a barrel of beer for his pains. Still they could catch him, albeit they that day took four wolves in their and killed them. He therefore straightway ordered a wolfto be held in my parish. But when the fellow came to toll bell for a wolf-hunt, he did not stop awhile, as is the won wolf-hunts, but loudly rang the bell on, sine morâ, so tha the folk thought a fire had broken out, and ran screaming of their houses. My child also came running out (I myself driven to visit a sick person at Zempin, seeing that wal began to be wearisome to me, and that I could now afford t more at mine ease); but she had not stood long, and was as the reason of the ringing, when the Sheriff himself, on his charger, with three cart-loads of toils and nets following galloped up and ordered the people straightway to go into forest and to drive the wolves with rattles. Hereupon he, his hunters and a few men whom he had picked out of the cro were to ride on and spread the nets behind Damerow, seeing the island is wondrous narrow there,* and the wolf dreads water. When he saw my daughter he turned his horse ro chucked her under the chin, and graciously asked her who was, and whence she came? When he had heard it, he said was as fair as an angel, and that he had not known till now the parson here had so beauteous a girl. He then rode off, lo ing round at her two or three times. At the first beating found the one-eyed wolf, who lay in the rushes near the wa Hereat his lordship rejoiced greatly, and made the grooms d him out of the net with long iron hooks, and hold him there near an hour, while my lord slowly and cruelly tortured him death, laughing heartily the while, which is a prognosticon what he afterwards did with my poor child, for wolf or lam all one to this villain. Just God! But I will not be beforeha with my tale.

*The space, which is constantly diminishing, now scarcely measur bow-shot across.

Next day came old Seden his squint-eyed wife, limping like a lame dog, and put it to my daughter whether she would not go into the service of the Sheriff; praised him as a good and pious man; and vowed that all the world said of him were foul lies, as she herself could bear witness, seeing that she had lived in his service for above ten years. Item, she praised the good cheer they had there, and the handsome beer-money that the great lords who often lay there gave the servants which waited upon them; that she herself had more than once received a rosenoble from his Princely Highness Duke Ernest Ludewig; moreover, many pretty fellows came there, which might make her fortune, inasmuch as she was a fair woman, and might take her choice of a husband; whereas here in Coserow, where nobody ever came, she might wait till she was old and ugly, before she got a curch on her head, &c. Hereat my daughter was beyond measure angered, and answered, "Ah! thou old witch, and who has told thee that I wish to go into service, to get a curch on my head? Go thy ways, and never enter the house again, for I have naught to do with thee." Whereupon she walked away again, muttering between her teeth.

Scarce had a few days passed, and I was standing in the chamber with the glazier, who was putting in new windows, when I heard my daughter scream in the kitchen. Whereupon I straightway ran in thither, and was shocked and affrighted when I saw the Sheriff himself standing in the corner with his arm round my child her neck; he, however, presently let her go, and said: "Aha, reverend Abraham, what a coy little fool you have for a daughter! I wanted to greet her with a kiss, as I always use to do, and she struggled and cried out as if I had been some young fellow who had stolen in upon her, whereas I might be her father twice over." As I answered naught, he went on to say that he had done it to encourage her, seeing that he desired to take her into his service, as indeed I knew, with more excuses of the same kind which I have forgot. Hereupon I pressed him to come into the room, seeing that after all he was the ruler set over me by God, and humbly asked what his lordship desired of me. Whereupon he answered me graciously, that it was true he had just cause for anger against me, seeing that I had preached at him before the whole congregation, but that he was ready to forgive

me and to have the complaint he had sent in contra 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 excused myself as best I might with regard to the sermon, he answered that he stood in great need of a faithful housekeeper whom he could set over the other women folk; and as he had learnt that my daughter was a faithful and trustworthy person, he would that I should send her into his service. "See there," said he to her, and pinched her cheek the while. "I want to lead you to honour, though you are such a young creature, and yet you cry out as if I were going to bring you to dishonour. Fie upon you!" (My child still remembers all this verbotenus; I myself should have forgot it a hundred times over in all the wretchedness I since underwent.) But she was offended at his words, and, jumping up from her seat, she answered shortly, "I thank your lordship for the honour, but will only keep house for my papa, which is a better honour for me;" whereupon he turned to me and asked what I said to that. I must own that I was not a little affrighted, inasmuch as I thought of the future and of the credit in which the Sheriff stood with his Princely Highness. I therefore answered with all humility, that I could not force my child, and that I loved to have her about me, seeing that my dear huswife had departed this life during the heavy pestilence, and I had no child but only her. That I hoped therefore his lordship would not be displeased with me, that I could not send her into his lordship's service. This angered him sore, and after disputing some time longer in vain he took leave, not without threats that he would make me pay for it. Item, my man, who was standing in the stable, heard him say as he went round the corner, "I will have her yet, in spite of him!"

I was already quite disheartened by all this, when, on the Sunday following, there came his huntsman Johannes Kurt, a tall, handsome fellow, and smartly dressed. He brought a roebuck tied before him on his horse, and said that his lordship had sent it to me for a present, in hopes that I would think better of his offer, seeing that he had been ever since seeking on all sides for a housekeeper in vain. Moreover, that if I changed my mind about it his lordship would speak for me to his Princely Highness, so that the dotation of Duke Philippus Julius should be