lfhounds; Anap, rightly Anapaest, was a slender and swift greyhound;
and whereas he found this pastime of names good sport he carried it
further. Thus it came to pass that the witless creatures who shared his
loneliness were reminders of many pleasant things. One of a pair of fleet
bloodhounds which were ever leashed together was named Nich, and the
other Syn, in memory that he had been betrothed on the festival of Saint
Nicodemus and wedded on Saint Synesius' day. A noble hound called Salve,
or as we should say Welcome, spoke to him of the birth of his first born,
and every dog in like manner had a name of some signification; thus Ann
took it not at all amiss that he should call a fine young setter after
her name. There had long been a Gred, short for Margaret.

Nevertheless we spent much more time in seeing the sick to whom my aunt
sent us on her errands, than we did in shooting or heron-hawking. She
ever packed the little basket we were to carry with her own hands, and
there was never a physic which she did not mingle, nor a garment she had
not made choice of, nor a victual she had not judged fit for each one it
was sent to.

Thus many a time our souls ached to see want and pain lying in darksome
chambers on wretched straw, though we earned thanks and true joy when we
saw that healing and ease followed in our steps. And whatever seemed to
me the most praiseworthy grace in my Aunt Jacoba, was, that albeit she
could never hear the hearty thanksgiving of those she had comforted and
healed, she nevertheless, to the end of her days, ceased not from caring
for the poor folks in the forest like a very mother.

My Ann was never made for such work, inasmuch as she could never endure
to see blood or wounds; yet was it in this tending of the sick that I had
reason to mark and understand how strong was the spirit of this frail,
slender flower.

Since a certain army surgeon, by name Haberlein, had departed this life,
there was no leech at the Forest lodge, but my aunt and the chaplain, a
man of few words but well trained in good works and a right pious servant
of the Lord, were disciples of Galen, and the leech from Nuremberg came
forth once a week, on each Tuesday; and since the death of Doctor Paul
Rieter, of whom I have made mention, it was his successor Master
Ulsenius. His duty it was to attend on the sick mistress, and on any
other sick folks if they needed it; and then it was our part to wait on
the leech, and my aunt w