He would have to pass the night here, that was certain. He and
Hirschvogel were locked in, but at least they were together. If
only he could have had something to eat! He thought with a pang of
how at this hour at home they ate the sweet soup, sometimes with
apples in it from Aunt Maila's farm orchard, and sang together,
and listened to Dorothea's reading of little tales, and basked in
the glow and delight that had beamed on them from the great
Nurnberg fire-king.
"Oh, poor, poor little 'Gilda! What is she doing without the dear
Hirschvogel?" he thought. Poor little 'Gilda! she had only now the
black iron stove of the ugly little kitchen. Oh, how cruel of
father!
August could not bear to hear the dealers blame or laugh at his
father, but he did feel that it had been so, so cruel to sell
Hirschvogel. The mere memory of all those long winter evenings,
when they had all closed round it, and roasted chestnuts or crab
apples in it, and listened to the howling of the wind and the deep
sound of the church bells, and tried very much to make each other
believe that the wolves still came down from the mountains into
the streets of Hall, and were that very minute growling at the
house door--all this memory coming on him with the sound of the
city bells, and the knowledge that night drew near upon him so
completely, being added to his hunger and his fear, so overcame
him that he burst out crying for the fiftieth time since he had
been inside the stove, and felt that he would starve to death, and
wondered dreamily if Hirschvogel would care.
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