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Show JU-0 bring all the children to the river, and each child must bring a thick stick." "If they are your captains and I'm only your squire, does that mean that Dietrich and Damien are more important than I am?" I asked. "Today you have become the fist in my gauntlet, and nothing is more important to a man than his strong fist. Now go!" I did what he told me to, and in a short time the riverbank was filled with children, each carrying a strong stick and pretending to joust with it or throwing it like a spear. Dietrich and Damien knighted each other with their staffs, one solemnly kneeling in front of the other, and then changing places. Hilde, as usual, stayed as close to Gast as she could manage. "I don't understand how all the children were able to leave their chores to come here," I told Gast, trying to get his attention over the noise. "I'm surprised that their parents would let them." "I told the council that this rat-killing would be like a children's crusade," he explained. "I said that God would be more likely to bless the efforts of pure-hearted children than of sin-filled adults, and they agreed." "Does that mean you believe in our God, Gast?" "Another time. Look up there. It is beginning." A few rats were approaching the riverbank. Although the children made a lot of commotion with their games, the rats were too frantic for water to be frightened away by the noise. The first one crawled down the bank, looking neither left nor |