Hurrying in from Janska Street, Mendel greeted the Headmaster and introduced Thomas Makyatta. He also explained that Makyatta would be joining him in class that day.
"Excellen', excellen'," responded Auspitz in heavily accented German through a luxuriant mustache. He was a man of above medium height, with thinning hair that had already receded well back from a high forehead. "Ve are 'onored."
Stamping the snow from their boots, Makyatta and Mendel made their way into the assembly hall just in time to hear the organ strike up the first chords of the opening hymn.
Makyatta took a seat at the back of the hall, while Mendel took his place in the line of teaching staff, who, as the music played and the pupils sang, marched solemnly up to the front of the room and took their seats on the raised dais. Another day of education had begun.
Assembly, with its mixture of music, singing, prayer and announcements lasted twenty minutes, after which the 400 boys were divided up into a series of parallel classes and taken, by their teachers, to the various classrooms. Mendel normally taught physics and natural history to the second and third grades and held a minimum teaching load of eighteen to twenty-seven lessons in a week. His boys were among the last to leave the hall, and he stopped two of them in the corridor.
"Here," he said, giving them the waxed paper parcel containing the Monastery pork leg.
With a grateful smile, the older of the two boys placed the package inside a brown canvas bag and pulled the drawstring tight around the neck.
"Thank you, Father," he said shyly, putting the bag under a small side table that stood outside the classroom door. They would collect it later before going home. At least their families would have a few scraps of meat with their boiled potatoes tonight.
"One of your 'sparrows'?", asked Makyatta.
"Yes," replied Mendel, "young Jiri Tomin and his brother. Their father is a shoemaker on Koliste Street. But come, the class will be waiting."
They followed the boys into a surprisingly large room with high windows and rows of double desks, most of which were occupied by well scrubbed boys. Providing heat was not a large item in the school budget, but in deference to the extreme cold outside, there was a tiled stove in one corner. Most of the boys kept their coats on, and while some teachers objected to this practice, Mendel was not among them.