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“Thanks,” Georg replied.

Doorn moved off with the group of men whose numbers had been called.

It got later. More numbers were called. But they were nowhere near 351. It got later still, and still no work for Georg. Finally, the little fat man returned and said, “That’s it. No more work today. Come back tomorrow.”

Georg crumpled the piece of paper and threw it on the floor. He thought he should feel disappointed, but in truth, he wasn’t feeling much of anything. It was just the way things kept happening to him. Ever since the army. Ever since that day.

He headed home. Ha, he thought. A little rented closet in a rickety fast built house is home. He put his hand in his purse, but it was empty. He’d spent all his coin getting drunk after being fired. He couldn’t even get a beer.

The next day, not being hung over, he woke before dawn. The small window high in the wall of his room was not quite dark. It was that time before dawn that sentries slept, and surprise attacks were made. His eyes went wide at the thought. Ah, you can take the man out of the army, but you can’t take the soldier out of the man.

He rose and put on his smelly jacket and his broken-down shoes. Then he headed off to the hiring hall.

This time, his number was lower. Even though he’d gotten there before dawn, there was still a line of men outside the hall waiting for it to open. Somehow, he was unsurprised to see Pieter Doorn standing a few places ahead of him in the line. Doorn turned, and nodded at him. They both got called at the same time.

“What are we going to be doing?” Georg said to Doorn.

“Probably moving rocks. They are rebuilding the city walls.”

“Why are they doing that?” Georg asked.

“The burghers have contracts with the people who live about and around the city to shelter behind the city walls in the event of danger. No walls, no contracts,” Doorn said, shrugging.

“That certainly didn’t happen in ’thirty-one,” Georg said. “It didn’t protect anybody.”

“That’s true,” Doorn said, “but now this is the new capital, and the Swedish king has new weapons and allies.”

“Ah, so…” Georg said.

Doorn proved right. The group was taken a short distance away, and was put to work loading stones into carts. The work wasn’t that hard, and the sun was out. Pretty soon, Georg was feeling better than he had in a while. It was like the sun and the work were sweating the alcohol out of him.

“Oh, yes,” she said, “my husband is one of the supervisors on the project to rebuild the walls, and also is helping to design the new water system.”

“And where did you come to Magdeburg from, Frau…?” The woman was clearly one of the new elite and it showed in her clothing. She was wearing over her dress a jacket of the new up-timer material called blue jean that was probably worth a year’s pay to her husband.

“Schuesslerin, Katerina Schuesslerin. My husband is Friedrich Wahlberg, who works for Herr Gericke.”

“Otto von Gericke is my husband, Frau Schuesslerin.”

“ von Gericke? Oh, my!” Frau Schuesslerin turned bright red and lowered her eyes. “My deepest apologies, there was no intent to offend!”

“No offense taken. It is still very new. So new in fact, you must not have heard. His Imperial Highness has read in the encyclopedias that in the future, the Holy Roman Emperor would ennoble my husband, and since that is not likely to happen now, His Highness decided to make my husband a noble now, in honor of his work rebuilding His Highness’ new capital.”

“Ah. My felicitations to both you and to Herr von Gericke,” Katerina said.

She paused, and then she said in a rush, “This is the first time I have been invited to a ‘movie’ and I don’t really know what they are.”

“It is an up-time thing. They had the ability to record things like plays so we can watch them long after the performance was done with. They call these recordings movies, and what we will see tonight is a movie that is from what they call ‘musical theater.’ It is much like a masque. This one is called Guys and Dolls.”

Katerina said, “They are starting to go in, now. Thank you for your help, Madame von Gericke.”

“Not at all.”

“Oh, Friedrich, it was wonderful!” Katerina said, “I could not believe that the people in the ‘movie’ weren’t alive right there in the theater with us all!”

“Um…hmmm.”

“The story appeared to be about a group of men who were interested in a gambling game, and one man, Nathan Detroit, trying to avoid marrying his mistress.”

“Um…hmmm.”

“There were some excellent songs, too. There was one that was sung by a men’s chorus and one of the main actors called ‘Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat.’ It was very good. It had a refrain that stuck in my head.”

“Um?”

“It went, ‘and the devil will drag you under by the sharp lapels on your checkered coat…sit down you’re rocking the boat.”

“Ah?”

“But a very interesting part was the Save-a-Soul mission. It seems that there was an army dedicated to saving souls.”

“Eh?” Friedrich Wahlberg looked up from his textbook. “An army for salvation? That is an interesting idea. We have plenty of armies. We have the Protestant armies, the Swedish armies, the French army and the Imperial armies. But even though they say they are fighting in the name of religion, they don’t seem to care about the souls of the people they kill and maim.” Wahlberg shook his head. “It is too bad we don’t have an Army of Salvation.”

“Maybe we shall.”

“What?”

“I have been looking for something to do here in Magdeburg. You are so busy with your engineering, and we have no family here.”

“Hmmm. You know, we are having a real problem with the workers on the wall and drunkenness. It would be good if there was some way we could stop them from getting drunk and not being fit to work the next day. Do you think your Salvation Army might be able to do something about that?”

Katerina thought.

The next morning she went to get an appointment to see the abbess of Quedlinburg. To her surprise, after a wait of perhaps an hour, she was ushered into a sitting room, where the abbess awaited.

Getting straight to the point, Katerina told the abbess what her husband had suggested, and said she wanted to make it come true.

“I want to start an Army of Salvation. My army would not carry weapons. We would be like the mission in Guys and Dolls, have you seen it?” she said.

“Yes, I have,” the abbess replied. “An interesting story, was it not?”

“Yes, especially the mission. I looked up the Save-a-Soul Mission in the up-timers’ books, and found out that it was actually called the Salvation Army. I want to have a Salvation Army, a Heilsarmee, here in Magdeburg.”

The abbess gestured for Katerina to go on.

“Particularly we would work with the workmen who are building our new city. My husband tells me they have terrible problems with drunkenness and absenteeism. We have to help these poor men!”

“I like it,” the abbess said, after some thought. “We must see how this can be done.”

“Did you know, Frau Schuesslerin, that there is a long tradition in Magdeburg of street singing?” Friedrich Spee said. “The university students sang for Christian charity on street corners.”

“I had no idea,” Katerina said. “I am not from here originally. I followed my husband who works for Herr von Gericke on the construction.”

“Yes,” the Jesuit said. “In fact, it is said that even Dr. Luther sang on the street with his fellow students. But why have you come to me?”

“I wish to start an army,” Katerina said. Spee’s eyes widened and his eyebrows rose. “But my army will not have arms. It will be a Salvation Army.”

“Ah, like the up-timers, I see,” Spee said.

“Not exactly. That is why I have come to see you.”

“Ah…?”

“We have Catholic armies and Protestant armies. What I want is an army for everyone. So I have come to you. You are close to the cardinal, and you are also a musician and hymn composer of some note. I want to have Catholics and Lutherans in my army.” Katerina folded her arms and waited.