'All right,' said Hans; 'I am well content with that, but I must
have something with me to eat--a baking of bread, a cask of
butter, a barrel of ale, and a keg of brandy. I can't do with
less than that.'

The squire said that he could easily get all that, so Hans got
all of these tied up together, hung them over his shoulder on his
good staff, and tramped away to Devilmoss Lake.

There he got into the boat, rowed out upon the lake, and got
everything ready to fish. As he now lay out there in the middle
of the lake, and it was pretty late in the evening, he thought he
would have something to eat first, before starting to work. Just
as he was at his busiest with this, Old Eric rose out of the
lake, caught him by the cuff of the neck, whipped him out of the
boat, and dragged him down to the bottom. It was a lucky thing
that Hans had his walking-stick with him that day, and had just
time to catch hold of it when he felt Old Eric's claws in his
neck, so when they got down to the bottom he said, 'Stop now,
just wait a little; here is solid ground.' With that he caught
Old Eric by the back of the neck with one hand, and hammered away
on his back with the staff, till he beat him out as flat as a
pancake. Old Eric then began to lament and howl, begging him
just to let him go, and he would never come back to the lake
again.

'No, my good fellow,' said Hans, 'you won't get off until you
promise to bring all the fish in the lake up to the squire's
courtyard, before to-morrow morning.'