'My Paulinka is a match for him; she'll look after him!' 'You don't know what you're talking of, neighbour; it will take the three of us to look after him. Lately he hasn't spent a single night at home, and sometimes I don't see him for a week.' The surveyor started work in the manor-fields the next morning, and for several days was seen walking about with a crowd of Germans in attendance on all his orders, carrying his poles, putting up a portable table, providing him with an umbrella or a place in the shade where he could take long pulls out of his wicker flask. The peasants stood silently watching them. 'I could measure as well as that if I drank as much as he does,' said one of them. 'Ah, but that is why he is a surveyor,' said another, 'because he has a strong head.' No sooner had he departed than the Germans drove off and returned with heavy cartloads of building materials. One fine day a small troop of masons and carpenters appeared with their implements. A party of colonists went out to meet them, followed by a large crowd of women and children. They met at an appointed place, where refreshments and a barrel of beer had been provided. Old Hamer, in a faded drill-jacket, Fritz in a black coat, and Wilhelm, adorned with a scarlet waistcoat with red flowers, were busy welcoming the guests; Wilhelm had charge of the barrel of beer. Maciek had noticed these preparations and gave the alarm, and all the inhabitants of the gospodarstwo watched the proceedings with the keenest interest. They saw old Hamer taking up a stake and driving it into the ground with a wooden hammer. 'Hoch!...Hoch!' shouted the workmen. Hamer bowed, took a second stake and carried it northwards, accompanied by the crowd. The women and children were headed by the schoolmaster in his little cart. He now lifted his cap high into the air, and at this sign the whole crowd started to sing Luther's hymn: 'A stronghold sure our God remains, A shield and hope unfailing, In need His help our freedom gains, O'er all our fear prevailing; Our old malignant foe Would fain work us woe; With craft and great might He doth against us fight, On earth is no one like him.' At the first note Slimak had taken off his cap, his wife crossed herself, and Maciek stepped aside and knelt down. Stasiek, with wide-open eyes, began to tremble, and Jendrek started running down the hill, waded through the river, and headed at full speed for the camp. While Hamer was driving the stake into the ground the procession, slowly coming up to him, continued: 'Our utmost might is all in vain, We straight had been rejected, But for us fights the perfect Man By God Himself elected; Ye ask: Who may He be? The Lord Christ is He! The God, by hosts ador'd, Our great Incarnate Lord, Who all His foes will vanquish.'