'Who knows? God has not denied him gifts; he may yet
become a pious priest.' So she took me to that gentleman. I was, if I
remember right, about nine or ten years old. First it fared ill with
me, for he was a choleric man, and I but an unapt peasant lad. He beat
me cruelly, and ofttimes dragged me by the ears out of the house, which
made me scream like a goat into which the knife had been stuck; so that
the neighbours oft talked of him as if he wished to murder me.

"I was not long with him, for just at that time my cousin came, who had
been to the schools at Ulm and Munich, in Bavaria; the name of this
student was Paulus of Summermatten. My relations had told him of me,
and he promised that he would take me with him to the schools in
Germany. When I heard this I fell on my knees, and prayed God Almighty
that He would preserve me from the 'Pfaffs,'[17] who taught me almost
nothing and beat me lamentably, for I had learned only to sing a little
of the Salve, and to beg for eggs with the other scholars, who were
with the Pfaff in the village.

"When Paulus was to begin his wanderings again, I was to go to him at
Stalden. Simon, my mother's brother, dwelt at Summermatten, on the road
to Stalden: he gave me a gold florin, which I carried in my little hand
to Stalden. I looked often on the way to see that I still had it, and
gave it to Paulus. Then we departed into the country, and I had to beg
for myself, and to give of what I got to my Bacchant Paulus: on account
of my simplicity and countrified language, much was given to me. At
night going over the Grimsel Mountain we came to an inn; I had never
seen a _kachelofen_,[18] and as the moon shone on the tiles, I imagined
it was a great calf: I saw only two tiles shining, which were, I
imagined, the eyes. In the morning I saw geese. I had never seen any
before, and when they hissed at me I thought they were devils, and
would eat me; so I cried out and ran away. At Lucerne I saw the first
tiled roofs.

"Afterwards we went to Meissen: it was a long journey for me, as I was
not accustomed to travel so far and to obtain food on the road. There
were eight or nine of us travelling together; three small Schuetzen, the
others great Bacchanten, as they are called; amongst all these I was
the smallest and youngest. When I could not keep up well, my cousin
Paulus came behind me with a rod, or little stick, and switched me on
my bare legs, for I had no stockings, and bad shoes. I do no