Claes came to the Bruges canal, not far from the sea. There, having
baited his hook, he cast it into the water and let out the line. On
the opposite bank, a little boy was lying against a clump of earth,
fast asleep. The boy, who was not dressed like a peasant, woke up at
the noise that Claes was making, and began to run away, fearing no
doubt that it was the village constable come to dislodge him from his
bed and to hale him off as a vagabond to the steen. But he soon lost
his fear when he recognized Claes, and when Claes called out to him:
"Would you like to earn a penny, my boy? Well then, drive the fish
over to my side!"
At this proposal the little boy, who was somewhat stout for his years,
jumped into the water, and arming himself with a plume of long reeds,
he began to drive the fish towards Claes. When the fishing was over,
Claes drew up his line and his landing-net, and came over by the lock
gate towards where the youngster was standing.
"Your name," said Claes, "is Lamme by baptism, and Goedzak by nature,
because you are of a gentle disposition, and you dwell in the rue
Heron behind the Church of Our Lady. But tell me why it is that,
young as you are, and well dressed, you are yet obliged to sleep out
here in the open?"
"Woe is me, Mr. Charcoal-burner," answered the boy. "I have a sister
at home, a year younger than I am, who fairly thrashes me at the
least occasion of disagreement. But I dare not take my revenge upon
her back for fear of doing her some injury, sir. Last night at supper
I was very hungry, and I was clearing out with my fingers the bottom
of a dish of beef and beans. She wanted to share it, but there was
not enough for us both, sir. And when she saw me licking my lips
because the sauce smelt good, she went mad with rage, and smote me
with all her force, so hard indeed that I fled away from the house,
beaten all black and blue."
Claes asked him what his father and mother were doing during this
scene.
"My father hit me on one shoulder and my mother on the other, crying,
'Strike back at her, you coward!' but I, not wishing to strike a girl,
made my escape."
All at once, Lamme went pale all over and began to tremble in every
limb, and Claes saw a tall woman approaching, and by her side a young
girl, very thin and fierce of aspect.
"Oh, oh!" cried Lamme, holding on to Claes by his breeches, "here
are my mother and my sister come to find me. Protect me, please,
Mr. Charcoal-burner!"
"Wait," said Claes. "First of all let me give you this penny-farthing
as your wages, and now let us go and meet them without fear."
When the two women saw Lamme, they ran up and both began to belabour
him--the mother because of the fright he had given her, the sister
because it was her habit so to do. Lamme took refuge behind Claes,
and cried out:
"I have earned a penny-farthing! I have earned a penny-farthing! Do
not beat me!"
By this time, however, his mother had begun to embrace him, while the
girl was trying to force open his hands and to get at the money. But
Lamme shouted:
"The money belongs to me. You shall not have it."
And he kept his fingers tightly closed. But Claes shook the girl
roughly by the ears, and said to her:
"If you go on picking quarrels like this with your brother, he that is
as good and gentle as a lamb, I shall put you in a black charcoal-pit,
and then it won't be I any longer that will be shaking you by the ears,
but the red devil himself from hell, and he will pull you into pieces
with his great claws and his teeth that are like forks."
At these words the girl averted her eyes from Claes, nor did she go
near Lamme, but hid behind her mother's skirts, and when she got back
into the town, she went about crying everywhere:
"The Charcoal-man has beaten me, and he keeps the devil in his cave."
Nevertheless she did not attack Lamme any more; but being the bigger
of the two, she made him work in her place, and the gentle simpleton
obeyed her right willingly.
Now Claes, on his way home, sold his catch to a farmer that often used
to buy fish from him. And when he was home again, he said to Soetkin:
"Behold! Here's what I have found in the bellies of four pike, nine
carp, and a basketful of eels." And he threw on the table a couple
of florins and half a farthing.
"Why don't you go fishing every day, my man?" asked Soetkin.
"For fear of becoming a fish myself, and being caught on the hook of
the village constable," he told her.