chelors always read together at
the same hour in one room, for there were no printed Greek books in the
country at that time; the preceptor alone had a printed Terence: what
was read, therefore, had first to be dictated, then parsed and
construed, and lastly explained; so that the Bacchanten when they went
away carried with them large sheets of writing.

"From thence our eight went off again to Dresden, and fell into great
want. We determined therefore one day to divide ourselves; some were to
look out for geese, some for turnips and onions, and one for a kitchen
pot; but we little ones went to the town of Neumarkt, to get bread and
salt, and we were to meet together in the evening outside the town,
where we were to camp out, and then cook what we had. There was a well
about a stone's throw from the town, near which we wished to pass the
night; but when they saw our fire in the town, they began to shoot at
us, yet did not hit us. Then we retired behind a bank to a little
stream and grove; the big fellows lopped off branches and made a kind
of hut, some plucked the geese, of which we had two; others put the
heads and feet and the giblets into the pot, in which they had shred
the turnips, others made two wooden spits and roasted the meat; when it
had become a little brown, we ate it with the turnips. In the night we
heard a kind of flapping: we found there was a pond near us which had
been drained in the day, and the fish were struggling in the mud; then
we took as many of them as we could, in a shirt fastened on a stick,
and went away to a village, where we gave some of them to a peasant,
that he might cook the others for us in beer.

"Soon after we went again from thence to Ulm, there Paulus took with
him another lad called Hildebrand Kalbermatter, son of a Pfaff: he was
quite young, and had some cloth given to him, such as is made in that
country, for a little coat. When we came to Ulm, Paul desired me to go
about with the cloth begging for money to pay for its making up; in
this way I got much money, for I was well accustomed to begging in
God's name, for the Bacchanten had constantly employed me in this, so
that I had hardly ever been taken to school, and not once taught to
read. Going thus seldom to the school, and having to give up to the
Bacchanten all I got by going round with the cloth, I suffered much
from hunger.

"But I must not omit to mention that there was at Ulm a pious widow,
who had two grown-up daug