Soetkin hurried off to tell Katheline the news, who when she heard it could not contain her delight, but cried aloud with joy. "He has spoken, the good man, and his words are the salvation of my body. He will be blessed by God--and blessed by the devil as well, if really"--and she trembled as she spoke the words--"if really it is the devil who is father to the little one that begins to stir beneath my breast!" And in due time Soetkin and Katheline brought into the world, the one a baby boy and the other a baby girl. Both were brought to baptism as the children of Claes. Soetkin's son was christened Hans, and did not live. But Katheline's daughter, who was christened Nele, grew up finely. She drank of the liquor of life from a fourfold flagon. Two of the flagons belonged to Katheline, and two were Soetkin's. And there was many a sweet dispute as to whose turn it was to give the child to drink. But much against her will, Katheline was obliged to let her milk dry up, lest questions should be asked as to where it came from, and she no mother.... But when the little Nele, that was her daughter, was weaned, then Katheline took her home to live with her, nor did she let her go back to Soetkin except when Nele called for her "mother." The neighbours said that it was a right and natural thing to do for Katheline to look after the child of Claes and Soetkin. For they were needy and poverty-stricken, whereas Katheline was comparatively well off. X One day Soetkin said to Claes: "Husband, I am heart-broken. This is now the third day that Tyl has been away. Know you not where he is?" Claes answered her sadly: "He is with all the others, roving vagabonds like himself, on the high road. Verily, it was cruel of God to give us such a son. When he was born I thought of him as the joy of our old age, and as another help in our house, for I hoped to make a good workman of him. But now some evil chance hath turned him into a thief and a good-for-nothing."