Little Gretel is sick with measles and her neighborhood friends are no longer visiting her because of this. When she is supposed to say her nighttime prayer, she hesitates at its beginning, where the dear little angels are summoned to her bedside. The mother admonishes her, since now that she is sick, she should pray correctly, but Gretel responds in poignant resignation: “Oh, Mama, the little angels won’t come to me, because I have the measles.”
(Fliegende Blätter, Munich, 1872)
Sic Transit Pestilentia 