back, and I'll take you to a hiding place where you
can be secure for to-night. To-morrow, I'll arrange it so that you will
get back to the wild geese."

THE CABIN

_Thursday, April fourteenth_.

The following morning when the boy awoke, he lay in a bed. When he saw
that he was in a house with four walls around him, and a roof over him,
he thought that he was at home. "I wonder if mother will come soon with
some coffee," he muttered to himself where he lay half-awake. Then he
remembered that he was in a deserted cabin on the crow-ridge, and that
Fumle-Drumle with the white feather had borne him there the night
before.

The boy was sore all over after the journey he had made the day before,
and he thought it was lovely to lie still while he waited for
Fumle-Drumle who had promised to come and fetch him.

Curtains of checked cotton hung before the bed, and he drew them aside
to look out into the cabin. It dawned upon him instantly that he had
never seen the mate to a cabin like this. The walls consisted of nothing
but a couple of rows of logs; then the roof began. There was no interior
ceiling, so he could look clear up to the roof-tree. The cabin was so
small that it appeared to have been built rather for such as he than for
real people. However, the fireplace and chimney were so large, he
thought that he had never seen larger. The entrance door was in a
gable-wall at the side of the fireplace, and was so narrow that it was
more like a wicket than a door. In the other gable-wall he saw a low and
broad window with many panes. There was scarcely any movable furniture
in the cabin. The bench on one side, and the table under the window,
were also stationary--also the big bed where he lay, and the
many-coloured cupboard.

The boy could not help wondering who owned the cabin, and why it was
deserted. It certainly looked as though the people who had lived there
expected to return. The coffee-urn and the gruel-pot stood on the
hearth, and there was some wood in the fireplace; the oven-rake and
baker's peel stood in a corner; the spinning wheel was raised on a
bench; on the shelf over the window lay oakum and flax, a couple of
skeins of yarn, a candle, and a bunch of matches.

Yes, it surely looked as if those who had lived there had intended to
come back. There were bed-clothes on the bed; and on the walls there
still hung long strips of cloth, upon which three riders named Kasper,
Melchior, and Baltasar were painted. T