On his patron saint's day (St. John, February 8), Mother Magdalis went
a step further, and presented him with a clean suit of clothes, very
humble but neat and sound, of her own making out of old hoards. Not for
holidays only, she said, but that he might change his clothes every
day, after work, as her Berthold used.
"Dainty, burgher ways," Hans called them, but he submitted, and
Gottlieb was greatly comforted, and thought his old friend a long way
advanced in his transformation into an angel.
So, between the sweetness of the boy's temper and of his dear mother's
love which folded him close, the bitter was turned into sweet within
him.
But Ursula, who heard the mocking of the boys with indignation, was
not so wise in her consolations.
"Wicked, envious little devils!" said she. "Never thou heed them, my
lamb! They would be glad enough, any of them, to be the master's angel,
or Dwarf Hans' darling, for that matter, if they could. It is nothing
but mean envy and spite, my little prince, my little wonder; never thou
heed them!"
And then the enemy crept unperceived into the child's heart.
Was he indeed a little prince and a wonder, on his platform of gifts
and goodness? And were all those naughty boys far below him, in another
sphere, hating him as the little devils in the mystery-plays seemed to
hate and torment the saints?
Had the "raven" been sent to him, after all, as to the prophet of old,
not only because he was hungry and pitied by God, but because he was
good and a favorite of God?
It seemed clear he was something quite out of the common.
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