e wooden posts, painted black, intended to fence
in a vineyard. He moderated his pace, and would have sung, but he
feared to betray himself by any sound. He stood still upon an
elevation, and heard far below upon the river the wheezy puffing of a
tow-boat; he saw the lights upon the masts of the boats in tow, and
they moved along so wonderfully! He counted them, and there were seven.

"They are also awake," he said to himself, and it occurred to him, for
the first time, that people were obliged to be awake, and to labor at
night to earn their living, as the engineers there on the tow-boat, the
helmsmen, and the boatmen on the boats in tow.

Why is this? What forces men to this? The boy angrily shook his head.
Why did this trouble him? He walked on over the high level plain, and
then ascended a hill behind it. He took a childlike pleasure that his
shadow accompanied him. He kept always the middle of the road; the
ditches by the wayside looked dismal and haunted. He was startled at
the shadows which the trees cast in the light of the moon, and was glad
when he came where it was clear and bright. When he drew near to a
village, he felt secure, for although everybody was asleep, yet he was
in the midst of human beings. The boy had been told that, by night,
thieves and murderers go about on all the roads to rob and to murder.
What did he have about him for them to rob? His watch and chain. He
took out his watch, wanting to conceal it.

"For shame!" he suddenly cried. He became conscious how afraid he was
in the depth of his soul; he would not be afraid. He boldly summoned up
the dangers which he wanted to encounter, rejoiced over them, and cried
aloud,--

"Come on! Here am I, and here is Devil too! Isn't it so, Devil? Just
let them come on!" he said to the dog caressingly. The dog leaped up to
him.

He passed through a village. All were asleep, except that here and
there a dog barked, scenting Devil's proximity. Roland ordered him to
be quiet, and he obeyed. The boy recognized the village as the one
where he had been with the doctor and Eric on Sunday: here was the
house where the man had died; here on the opposite side was the
gymnastic ground, where he had exercised with Eric. At last he came to
the house of Sevenpiper, where the entire orchestra were now asleep. He
stood awhile, considering whether he should not wake up some one in the
house, either to go with him, or to be sent to his father. He rejected
both sugge