e shed, peeped through a crack to see what could be
the matter.

"Is there anyone near?" enquired the Goat-father in a whisper.

"No. There's a party in the Inn, but they are too busy eating to take
any notice of us. I am just loitering here, in case there should be
any pieces of sandwich paper flying about."

"Is there any chance of my making my escape?" enquired the
Heif-father. "Are they very watchful people?"

"Excessively so," replied the old Slave. "I've never been able to get
away for the last ten years."

The Goat-father groaned. "Then it wouldn't be possible for you to take
a message to my family?"

"Quite impossible, my dear friend, I assure you. Can't you find any
crack in the shed where you could break through?"

"There's _nothing_," cried the Goat-father. "I've searched round and
round, and the door is as strong and tight as a prison."

"Well, I'll go off and see if I can find a messenger," said the old
Slave good-naturedly. "Perhaps the old fox would manage it."

"A fox! Oh, I don't think _that_ would do," said the Heif-father. "It
mightn't be safe for my family."

"Oh, _he's_ all right," said the Slave. "He's been in captivity so
long, it's taken all the spirit out of him. He might live in a
farmyard. He's a good-natured creature, too, and I daresay he'll go to
oblige me."

The Goat-father pulled a band and buckle off his necktie, and poked it
under the door.

"Not to eat!" he whispered warningly, "but for the fox to take with
him, that my wife may know the message comes from me; and be quick
about it, my good friend, for I really am positively starving!"

"All right," said the old Goat, "I'll send the fox off, and come back
in a few minutes to bring you some stale cabbage leaves."

"A friend in need, is a friend indeed!" murmured the Goat-father; and
went to sleep that night with more hope than he had felt since the
moment of his capture.

CHAPTER IV.

"Come along, mother," cried Heinrich, grasping the Heif-mother's hand
as they left the garden before their Chalet, and commenced the
dangerous descent of the mountain.

Far below them they could see the great stretch of the dazzlingly
white Glacier, with its rents and fissures shining greenly in the
sunshine. On either side rose bare crags topped with grass, and above
all, the snowy summits of the mountains.

The first part of the journey led along a narrow pathway, which the
Goat-mother managed very successfully, but when they ca