w above the door; and it was crowded, and had a strong smell
in it from the Russian hides and the hams that were in it. But
August was not frightened; he was close to Hirschvogel, and
presently he meant to be closer still; for he meant to do nothing
less than get inside Hirschvogel itself. Being a shrewd little
boy, and having had by great luck two silver groschen in his
breeches-pocket, which he had earned the day before by chopping
wood, he had bought some bread and sausage at the station of a
woman there who knew him, and who thought he was going out to his
uncle Joachim's chalet above Jenbach. This he had with him, and
this he ate in the darkness and the lumbering, pounding,
thundering noise which made him giddy, as never had he been in a
train of any kind before. Still he ate, having had no breakfast,
and being a child, and half a German, and not knowing at all how
or when he ever would eat again.

When he had eaten, not as much as he wanted, but as much as he
thought was prudent (for who could say when he would be able to
buy anything more?), he set to work like a little mouse to make a
hole in the withes of straw and hay which enveloped the stove. If
it had been put in a packing-case he would have been defeated at
the onset. As it was, he gnawed, and nibbled, and pulled, and
pushed, just as a mouse would have done, making his hole where he
guessed that the opening of the stove was,--the opening through
which he had so often thrust the big oak logs to feed it. No one
disturbed him; the heavy train went lumbering on and on, and he
saw nothing at all of the beautiful mountains, and shining
waters, and great forests through which he was being carried. He
was hard at work getting through the straw and hay and twisted
ropes; and get through them at last he did, and found the door of
the stove, which he knew so well, and which was quite large
enough for a child of his age to slip through, and it was this
which he had counted upon doing. Slip through he did, as he had
often done at home for fun, and curled himself up there to see if
he could anyhow remain during many hours. He found that he could;
air came in through the brass fret-work of the stove; and with
admirable caution in such a little fellow he leaned out, drew the
hay and straw together, and rearranged the ropes, so that no one
could ever have dreamed a little mouse had been at them. Then he
curled himself up again, this time more like a dormouse than
anythi