a hurry, wife," said the Mole-father. "I've thought
of something. We won't terrify the Hedgehogs--What can _they_ do?--but
we'll collect all the Moles of the neighbourhood, and make a burrow
all round the house; then if the Tinker's son comes, he'll fall in,
and can't get any further. What do you think of that, eh?"

"An excellent idea!" said the Mole-mother, recovering. "Send Karl
round to-night, and begin the first thing to-morrow morning."

As soon as daylight dawned in the forest, the Mole-father, accompanied
by his wife and children, and all their friends; went out in a long
procession, with their shovels and wheelbarrows, and commenced work
round the Hedgehogs' house.

The Councillor's family were so busily occupied in turning out, and
arranging, their rooms for the festivity--which was to include a dance
in the evening--that they had no time to take any notice of the
Moles' digging; in fact they never even observed it. The younger
Hedgehogs were roasting coffee. The house-mother sugared the cakes in
the back-kitchen, while the Councillor, with a large holland apron,
rubbed down the floor, and gave a final dust to the furniture.

As to Uncle Columbus--he sat on a sort of island of chairs in one
corner, studying a book, and looking on misanthropically at the
preparations.

The Moles, therefore, were quite uninterrupted, and burrowed away
vigorously, until the earth all round the house was mined to a depth
of several feet; and they returned home to dinner in high spirits.

"If that boy dares to venture, may I be made into waistcoats, if he
doesn't fall in!" cried the Mole-father, wiping his face with a red
cotton pocket-handkerchief--for though the snow was on the ground the
work was exhausting.

CHAPTER III.

The Tinker's family sat round a fire, in one of the tumble-down wooden
cottages that dotted the outskirts of the little town of Ruhla.

A small stove scarcely warmed the one room, for great cracks appeared
in the walls in every direction.

"We've got no dinner to-day; are you going after those Hedgehogs?"
said the Tinker to his son Otto. "Now you know where they are, it
will be an easy thing to get hold of them."

"Yes; we'll have a fine supper to-night," said Otto, stamping his feet
to get them warm. "Come with me, Johann, and we'll take the old sack
over our shoulders to bring them back in."

They started off over the crisp snow sparkling in the early sunshine,
away to the forest; and strai