This to be sure Fottner did not do, for he was no friend of toilsome head-work, but his teacher was himself a clergyman, who knew that the servants of God could officiate without learning, if need be. Therefore he preferred, purely from a sense of duty, not to injure Matt, and with Christian charity he let him be promoted the second year.
Matt came home as a member of the fifth form, and looked for all the world like a student.
He was already seventeen, and physically very much developed.
The Vicar of Aufhausen he overtopped by a head, and all his limbs were coarse and uncouth. And at this time also he lost his boyish voice and assumed a rasping bass.
When he foregathered with his school friends Joseph Scharl of Pettenbach and Martin Zollbert of Glonn, it was clear that he could drink vastly more than they, and that he already was well informed on all convivial regulations.
His class spirit was strong, and he would sing with his boon companions such college songs as "Vom hoh'n Olymp herab ward uns die Freude" or "Drum Brüderchen er-her-go biba-ha-mus"[A] so powerfully and loudly that the Bridge Farmer at the next table would be astonished at the scholarly attainments of the former village lad.
[Footnote A: Familiar drinking songs.--Translator.]
And when Matt made his visit at the parsonage, he did not as in previous years request the cook to announce him, but handed her his calling card, on which was neatly printed:
Matthew Fottner
stud. lit. et art.
Which means studiosus litterarum et artium, a devotee of letters and fine arts.