Gretel

<p>The meal they ate in the inn was boiled cabbage sliced cooked meats and bread with a cup of red wine. There was horseradish to flavor the beef and butter to spread on the brot. They sat beside the big heating and cooking fireplace. A kettle hung from a hinged iron hook that pivoted over the fire. The fireplace was so large that they were almost sitting inside it. The warmth felt inviting and good. A tall canister of pig’s knuckles simmered by the burning logs and an enormous pot of soup slow cooked on another hinge that could swing out to ladle a bowl of potato chowder. </p> <p>Their guest had not yet arrived. <br /> “How did you come to know Geert of Deventer?” the Landgraf asked Jan Cele making table conversation. <br /> “We were at the university together at Prague.” <br /> “Prague. That’s impressive. The capitol of the Holy Roman Empire.” <br /> “For being so far to the east it is impressive” Cele affirmed. <br /> “The city of Good King Wenceslaus” the Landgraf exchanged. <br /> “I know a Christmas carol about him” chimed in Gretel. </p> <p>Good King Wenceslaus looked out <br /> On the Feast of Stephen <br /> Where the snow lay round about <br /> Deep and crisp and even. </p> <p>“Bravo!” the men clapped and Gretel was embarrassed. But she was beginning to like the conversation of schooled companions. <br /> “I would like to be educated like yourselves” she blushed. <br /> John Cele came to her rescue. <br /> “So you shall be and more” he said foreshadowing a bright future.<br /> “I would like that very much.” <br /> “Education” affirmed the Landgraf “will set you free to be. . .” <br /> “I believe that!” John Cele said. “Free to be! That is the question and answer education offers.”</p>