My other pupils, those whose parents had obliged them to attend school, had gone to other places.

Their parents blamed me for having spoiled them and heaped reproaches on me for it.

One, however, the son of a country woman who visited me during my illness, had not returned on account of having been made a sacristan, and the senior sacristan says that the sacristans must not attend school: they would be dismissed." "Were you resigned in looking after your new pupils ?" asked Ibarra.
"What else could I do ?" was the queried reply.

"Nevertheless, during my illness many things had happened, among them a change of curates, so I took new hope and made another attempt to the end that the children should not lose all their time and should, in so far as possible, get some benefit from the floggings, that such things might at least have some good result for them.

I pondered over the matter, as I wished that even if they could not love me, by getting something useful from me, they might remember me with less bitterness.