man, whom they met at the brick-yard, stopped in the midst of his
cry and said, "Pleasant trip to you."

For nearly an hour nothing was heard but the horse's tread and the
rattling of the wheels. Ivo lay on his mother's bosom with his arms
around her. Once he made his way out of the warm covering and asked,
"Bart, have you a cloak?"

"Yes: Nat gave me the horse-cloth."

Ivo again sank upon his mother's bosom, and, overpowered by sorrow and
fatigue, he fell asleep. Blest lot of childhood, that the breath of
slumber is sufficient to wipe all its bitterness away!

The road led almost wholly through forests. They passed through
Muehringen, traversed the lovely valley of the Eiach, and left the
bathing-place of Imnau behind, before ever it occurred to Ivo to look
about him. Not until they came down the steep that leads into
Haigerloch did he fairly awake; and he was almost frightened to see the
town far down in the ravine encircled by the frowning hills. As day
broke they felt the cold more keenly; for it is as if Night, when she
arises to quit the earth, gathered all her strength about her to leave
the traces of her presence as deep as possible.

They stopped at Hechingen, at the Little Horse, where a young girl was
standing under the door. Perhaps this reminded Ivo of Emmerence; for he
said, "Mother, shall we eat the duck now?"

"No: we'll have it for dinner at Gamertingen, and get them to make us a
nice soup besides."

The bright sunshine in the Killer Valley, the constant change of scene,
and the novel details of rural life which he saw in the "Rauh Alb"
Mountains, cheered Ivo a little; and when he saw a large herd of cattle
grazing he said to Nat, "Mind you take good care of my Brindle."

"There's an end of my care of him: your father has sold him to
Buchmaier, and he is coming to fetch him to-day and break him in."

Ivo was too well acquainted with the stages of a domestic animal's life
to be much grieved at this news: he only said, "Well, Buchmaier is a
good man, and deals well by man and beast; so I guess he won't work him
too hard. And, besides, he don't yoke two oxen into one yoke, but gives
each his own, so they're not worried quite so much."

The sun was near setting when they reached the valley of the Danube.
Nat became quite lively. With his head bent back, he told all sorts of
stories of the neighboring town of Munderkingen, of which much the same
jokes are told as are sometimes expended upon the Sc