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the
roof-tiles were broken, and she was too poor to get new ones, and the
rain kept coming in, and no Christian soul in Andernach would help her.
But the Frau Martha was a good woman, and never did anybody any
harm, but went to mass every morning, and sold pies by the Rheinkrahn.
Now one dark, windy night, when all the good Christians in
Andernachwere abed and asleep in the feathers, Frau Martha, who slept
under the roof, heard a great noise over her head, and in her chamber,
drip! drip! drip! as if the rain were dropping down through the broken
tiles. Dear soul! and sure enough it was. And then there was a pounding
and hammering overhead, as if somebody were at work on the roof; and
she thought it was Pelz-Nickel tearing the tiles off, because she had not

been to confession often enough. So she began to pray; and the faster
she said her Pater-noster and her Ave-Maria, the faster Pelz-Nickel
pounded and pulled; and drip! drip! drip! it went all round her in the
dark chamber, till the poor woman was frightened out of her wits, and
ran to the window to call for help. Then in a moment all was
still,--death-still. But she saw a light streaming through the mist and
rain, and a great shadow on the house opposite. And then somebody
came down from the top of her house by a ladder, and had a lantern in
his hand; and he took the ladder on his shoulder and went down
thestreet. But she could not see clearly, because the window was
streaked with rain. And in the morning the old broken tiles were found
scattered about the street, and there were new ones on the roof, and the
old house has never leaked to this blessed day.
"As soon as mass was over Frau Martha told the priest what had
happened, and he said it was not Pelz-Nickel, but, without doubt, St.
Castor or St. Florian. Then she went to the market and told Frau
Bridget all about it; and Frau Bridget said, that, two nights before, Hans
Claus, the cooper, had heard a great pounding in his shop, and in the
morning found new hoops on all his old hogsheads; and that a man
with a lantern and a ladder had been seen riding out of town at
midnight on a donkey, and that the same night the old windmill, at
Kloster St. Thomas, had been mended up, and the old gate of the
churchyard at Feldkirche made as good as new, though nobody knew
how the man got across the river. Then Frau Martha went down to the
Rheinkrahn and told all thesestories over again; and the old ferryman of
Fahr said he could tell something about it; for, the very night that the
churchyard-gate was mended, he was lying awake in his bed, because
he could not sleep, and he heard a loud knocking at the door, and
somebody calling to him to get up and set him over the river. And
when he got up, he saw a man down by the river with a lantern and a
ladder; but as he was going down to him, the man blew out the light,
and it was so dark he could not see who he was; and his boat was old
and leaky, and he was afraid to set him over in the dark; but the man
said he must be in Andernach that night; and so he set him over. And
after they had crossed the river, he watched the man, till he came to an
image of the Holy Virgin, and saw him put the ladder against the wall,
and go up and light his lamp, and then walk along the street. And in the

morning he found his old boat all caulked, and tight, and painted red,
and he could not for his blessed life tell who did it, unless it werethe
man with the lantern. Dear soul! how strange it was!
"And so it went on for some time; and, whenever the man with the
lantern had been seen walking through the street at night, so sure as the
morning came, some work had been done for the sake of some good
soul; and everybody knew he did it; and yet nobody could find out who
he was, nor where he lived;--for, whenever they came near him, he
blew out his light, and turned down another street, and, if they followed
him, he suddenly disappeared, nobody could tell how. And some said it
was Rübezahl; and some, Pelz-Nickel; and some, St.
Anthony-on-the-Health.
"Now one stormy night a poor, sinful creature was wandering about the
streets, with her babe in her arms, and she was hungry, and