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 the words, "Ann, to her worthy work-fellow."

Here I am bound to tell that, not to my aunt alone, but to me likewise
did the good work which the old organist had pointed out to my friend,
seem a vain imagining when it had led her to accept a lover whom she
loved not. But when it became a part of her life, stripped of all
bigotry or overmuch zeal, and when the old musician had led us to know
many poor folks, it worked right well and we were able to help many an
one, not alone with money and food, but likewise with good counsel and
nursing in sore need. Whenever we might apply to the Magister, his door
and purse alike were open to us, and peradventure he went more often to
visit and succor the needy than he might otherwise have done,
inasmuch as he thereby found the chance of speech with his gracious
"work-fellow," of winning her praises and kissing her hand, which Ann
was ever fain to grant when he ha