The Cuckoo Clock. Mary Stolz

the time I’ve heard her laughing away on the lawn at the castle.” He had been a forester in Baron Balloon’s park until he decided to run off with Frau Goddhart’s maid in the middle of the night. “But she’s a saintly woman, all the same,” he said.

      “Oh yes, of course,” said the little maid, out of habit, and off they went and were never heard of again.

      From the age of five, Erich was quite on his own. Except for jobs he was required to do around the Manor House—blacking boots, scouring pots, toting pails of water for the copper hip-tubs in the bedrooms, carrying slops to the pigs, splitting wood for the fires, cleaning out the hearths, scrubbing the stone floors, all tasks normally set to orphans and suchlike in those days—his time was his own, since no one except Herr Goddhart paid him any attention.