ooden
bench in front of the house and listen as she told him about his father
and talk with her about all kinds of things.

But now the time had come for Toni to go to school. It was very hard for
him to leave his mother and remain away from her so much. The long way
down to Kandergrund and up again took so much time, that Toni was hardly
ever with his mother any more through the day, but only in the evening.
Indeed he always came home so quickly that she could hardly believe it
possible, for he looked forward with pleasure all day long to getting home
again. He lost no time with his school-mates but ran immediately away from
them as soon as school was over. He was not accustomed to the ways of the
other boys since he had been constantly alone with his quietly working
mother and used to performing definite tasks continually without any
noise.

So it was altogether strange to him and he took no pleasure in it, when
the boys coming out of the school-house, set up a great screaming, one
running after another, trying to see which was the stronger, and throwing
one another on the ground, or wrestling so that their caps were thrown far
away and their jackets half torn off.

The wrestlers would often call to him:

"Come and play!" and when he ran away from them they would call after
him: "You are a coward." But this made little difference to him; he didn't
hear it long, for he ran with all his might in order to be at home again
with his mother.

Now a new interest for him arose in the school: he had seen beautiful
animals drawn on white sheets, which the children of the upper classes
copied. He quickly tried to draw them, too, with his pencil and at home
continued drawing the animals again and again as long as he had a bit of
paper. Then he cut out the animals and tried to make them stand on the
table, but this he could not do. Then suddenly the thought came to him
that if they were of wood they could stand. He began quickly with his
knife to cut around on a little piece of wood until there was a body and
four legs; but the wood was not large enough for the neck and the head; so
he had to take another piece and calculate from the beginning how high it
must be and where the head must be placed. So Toni cut away with much
perseverance until he succeeded in making something like a goat and could
show it with great satisfaction to his mother. She was much delighted at
his skill and said:

"You are surely going to be a wood-