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Show 16 "That boy must leave at once!" he stormed, as the nuns clutched each other and wept. "How can you keep your minds on Our Lord with a child prattling and prating in your ears all day long? He will leave with me today - I'm going to Hamelin and I'll find a tradesman who will keep him and let him work for his feed." Sister Perpetua was so stricken with grief that she had to be put to bed. The others sobbed as they packed my shirts and hosen and my small wool cape, and I cried too, running from one to the other and begging them to keep me. Then the Director General made me sit in front of him on his horse, and he brought me to Hamelin where he gave me to Master Hermann. Once in a while the nuns would send me a letter, written painstakingly by Mother Justina, but parchment was expensive and hard to get, and not many people travelled past the convent on the way to Hamelin. I had no way to write back, so after a while their letters stopped coming. The nuns were all so old - I suppose they forgot about me. "No, Father Johann, my life here is nothing at all like the old days," I told him. "Sometimes it is given to us to suffer on earth, so that our reward will be greater in heaven. I will say a special mass for your well-being, Albert, on...ah...the day after tomorrow. At...uh... Matins, six in the morning. Be there, Albert." I nodded, pleased and grateful. In a few moments Master Hermann appeared, pulling his shirt over |