d it need many a prayer and many a mass to
deliver him from the fires of purgatory. So Riklein, span and span, day
and night, and stored up all she earned, and when she lay on her
death-bed, not long ago, and the priest gave her the Holy Sacrament, she
took out her hoard from beneath her mattress and showed it to him, asking
whether that might be enough to pay to open the way for Andres to the
joys of Heaven? And when the chaplain said that it would be, she turned
away her face and fell asleep. So do you spin your yarn, child, and let
the flax on your distaff be glad assurance; and, if ever your heart sinks
within you, remember old Riklein!"

"And the Farmer's daughter in 'Poor Heinrich,'" I said, "who gladly gave
her young blood to save her plighted lord from leprosy."

Thus had my aunt gained her end; but when she strove to carry Ann away
from her home and kindred, and keep her in the forest as her own
child--to which Master Pernhart and his mother gave their consent--she
failed in the attempt. Ann was steadfast in her desire to remain with her
mother and the children, and more especially with her deaf and dumb
brother, Mario. If my aunt should at any time need her she had but to
command her, and she would gladly go to her, this very day if she desired
it; howbeit duly to work out her spinning--and by this she meant that she
bore Riklein in mind--she must ever do her part for her own folk, with a
clear conscience.

Thus it was fixed that Ann should go to the Forest lodge to stay till
Christmas and the New Year were past, only she craved a few hours delay
that she might remove all doubt from the Magister's mind. I offered to
take upon myself this painful task; but she altogether rejected this, and
how rightly she judged was presently proved by her cast-off suitor's
demeanor; inasmuch as he was ever after her faithful servant and called
her his gracious work-fellow. When she had told him of her decision he
swore, well-nigh with violence, to become a monk, and to make over his
inheritance to a convent, but Ann, with much eloquence, besought him to
do no such thing, and laid before him the grace of living to make others
happy; she won him over to join our little league and whereas he
confessed that he was in no wise fit for the life, she promised that she
would seek out the poor and needy and claim the aid only of his learning
and his purse. And some time after she made him a gift of an alms-bag on
which she had wrought