use and intimacy.

"'My post is a profitable one,' said he; 'and, in consideration of my
long services, the worshipful burgomaster has given me leave to seek
an assistant, now that I am getting too old for my office. Consider
then, my son, if the offer suits you. You please me, and I mean you
well. But here comes my Elizabeth, who will soon learn to like you if
you are a good lad.'

"As he spoke, a young girl entered the room, with a psalm-book in her
hand, and attired in an old-fashioned dress, which was not able,
however, to conceal the elegance of her figure, and the charms of her
blooming countenance.

"'How think you, Elizabeth?' said her father. 'Is he not as like our
poor Amadeus as one egg is to another?'

"'I do not see the likeness, my dear father,' replied Elizabeth,
looking timidly at me, and then casting down her eyes, and blushing.

"I accepted the old man's offer with joy, and took up my dwelling in
the other turret of the church tower. My occupation was to keep the
clock wound up, to play the evening hymn on the balcony of the tower,
and to strike the hours upon the great bell with a heavy hammer.

"I soon felt the good effect of repose, and of the happy, tranquil
life I now led; my spirits improved, and I began to forget the curse
which hung over me--to forget, in short, that I was the unlucky
Thirteenth. Old Kranhelm's liking for me increased rapidly, and, in
less than three months, I was Elizabeth's accepted lover. Time flew
on; the wedding-day was fixed, and the bridal-chamber prepared.

"It was on Friday evening, exactly eight days ago, that I went out
with Elizabeth, and walked down to the port to look at a large Swedish
ship that had just arrived. The passengers were landing, and one
amongst them immediately attracted our attention.

"This was a tall, lean, raw-boned woman, apparently about forty years
of age, who held in her hand a long, smooth staff, which she waved
about her, nodding her head, and muttering, as she went, in some
strange, unintelligible dialect. Her dress consisted of a huge black
fur cloak, and a cape of the same colour fringed with red. Her whole
manner and appearance were so strange, that a crowd assembled round
her as soon as she set foot on shore.

"'Hallo! comrade,' cried one of the sailors of the vessel that had
brought her, to a boatman who was passing. 'Hallo! comrade, do you
want a job? Here's a witch to take to Hiddensee.'

"We asked the sailor what he mea