So he called for his horse and rode away, and away, until he came to the poor man’s house, and there he found the poor man sitting at his doorstep very sad and doleful.

“What is the matter, my friend?” asked he; and the poor man replied: 

“May it please your honour, a little lass has just been born to our house; and we have five children already, and where the bread is to come from to fill the sixth mouth, we know not.”

“If that be all your trouble,” quoth the Baron readily, “mayhap I can help you:  so don’t be down-hearted.  I am just looking for such a little lass to companion my son, so, if you will, I will give you ten crowns for her.”

Well! the man he nigh jumped for joy, since he was to get good money, and his daughter, so he thought, a good home.  Therefore he brought out the child then and there, and the Baron, wrapping the babe in his cloak, rode away.  But when he got to the river he flung the little thing into the swollen stream, and said to himself as he galloped back to his castle: 

“There goes Fate!”

But, you see, he was just sore mistaken.  For the little lass didn’t sink.  The stream was very swift, and her long clothes kept her up till she caught in a snag just opposite a fisherman, who was mending his nets.

Now the fisherman and his wife had no children, and they were just longing for a baby; so when the goodman saw the little lass he was overcome with joy, and took her home to his wife, who received her with open arms.

And there she grew up, the apple of their eyes, into the most beautiful maiden that ever was seen.

Now, when she was about fifteen years of age, it so happened that the Baron and his friends went a-hunting along the banks of the river and stopped to get a drink of water at the fisherman’s hut.  And who should bring the water out but, as they thought, the fisherman’s daughter.

Now the young men of the party noticed her beauty, and one of them said to the Baron, “She should marry well; read us her fate, since you are so learned in the art.”

Then the Baron, scarce looking at her, said carelessly:  “I could guess her fate!  Some wretched yokel or other.  But, to please you, I will cast her horoscope by the stars; so tell me, girl, what day you were born?”

“That I cannot tell, sir,” replied the girl, “for I was picked up in the river about fifteen years ago.”

Then the Baron grew pale, for he guessed at once that she was the little lass he had flung into the stream, and that Fate had been stronger than he was.  But he kept his own counsel and said nothing at the time.  Afterwards, however, he thought out a plan, so he rode back and gave the girl a letter.

“See you!” he said.  “I will make your fortune.  Take this letter to my brother, who needs a good girl, and you will be settled for life.”

Now the fisherman and his wife were growing old and needed help; so the girl said she would go, and took the letter.