him daily for many months, whenever he was alone, and always came at night when he went to bed, both when he was awake and when he was asleep.
The Fool stood still, open-mouthed.
"Tell me, you great pudding-headed little shrimp. How old are you?"
"Ten years and two months."
"Ten and two months, and you have a head full of dreams already. Gerold, you are a phenomenon."
"What does that mean, 'phenomenon'?"
"Nothing to hurt your feelings. And by the way, whenever you want to write that word 'phenomenon', do me the favour of spelling it with 'ph' at the beginning, or at the very worst with an 'f', but whatever you do, don't write 'pf' as the president of the St. Cecilia Society in Niedereulenbach did. But now to come back to your wonderful General. As you have told me your secret, I will tell you something mysterious, which you needn't believe unless you want to, but you must pay attention all the same and remember it. Some day, in five years maybe, or seven or eight years, that General of Cadets will turn into a real live girl, whom you can look at in the flesh, and she will call you 'Gerold', with a very long 'e' as if it were spelled 'Geh'. Is there anything else you'd like to ask me?"
"Yes. Why does God let cats torture mice so horribly before killing them?"
"Where do you get your God from?"
"Out of the Bible."
"Doesn't the Bible tell about the Devil too?"
"Oh, yes. But the Pastor told us in our Bible lesson that all the same the Devil didn't really exist."
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