h? Ach, it
is that! That thumb!" He scowled at it. "That crawling, snivelling,
stiff-necked one!" He brought it down with a thump on the table. "To
make me all my days ashamed!" He held up the thumb and shook it
scornfully.

High up in the Johanneskirche, in front of the big organ, the boy was
playing--with head and hands and heart and feet and thumb--swaying to
the music, lifting it from the great organ till it pealed forth, a
mighty sound, and, breaking from the gloomy church, floated on the still
air.... In the garden across the way, above their mugs, two old,
white-wigged heads nodded and chuckled in the sun.

V

The Katherinenkirche was dark, and very still--except for a faint noise
that came from a far corner of the upper left-hand gallery. The old
verger, moving about in felt slippers below, paused now and then, and
looked up as the sound grew louder or died away. It was like a mouse
nibbling--and yet it was not a mouse.

The verger lighted a taper and prepared to ascend the stairs.

He heaved a sigh as he climbed the steep step, throwing the candle rays
ahead of him into the gloom of the gallery. Not a sound. The silence of
death was in the big church.... Muttering to himself, he traversed the
long aisle at the top of the gallery, peering down into the vacant seats
that edged the blackness below.

Suddenly he stopped. His eye had caught a gleam of something to the left
of the last pillar. He snuffed the wavering taper with his fingers and
leaned forward. A face grew out of the darkness and stood up.

"What are you doing?" demanded the old man, falling back a step.

"Eating my supper," said the youth. He held up a handkerchief. In the
dim light two pieces of crisp, dry bread shaped themselves, and a
generous odor of cheese floated out.

"In the church!" said the verger, with an accent of horror.

The youth's face regarded him pleadingly.

"Come away!" said the old man sternly.

He led the way down the steep stair, into a high, small room, lighted by
a narrow window over which cobwebs ran. "Here you may eat," he said
laconically.

With a grateful glance the youth seated himself on the edge of a chair
and opening his handkerchief took out a piece of the dry bread. His
teeth broke it crisply, and crunched sharply upon it as he ate.

The old man nodded with satisfaction. "That is the mouse," he said.

The youth smiled faintly.

"Where do you come from?" asked the verger.

"From Lueneburg