ry thin fellow had of a night
occasionally squeezed himself through to go and pay his little visits
in the town. The part of the body most difficult to manage on such
occasions was, no doubt, the head; here, as is so often the case in
the world, long-headed people get through best. So much, then, for the
introduction.

One of the young men, whose head, in a physical sense only, might be
said to be of the thickest, had the watch that evening. The rain poured
down in torrents; yet despite these two obstacles, the young man was
obliged to go out, if it were but for a quarter of an hour; and as
to telling the door-keeper about it, that, he thought, was quite
unnecessary, if, with a whole skin, he were able to slip through the
railings. There, on the floor lay the galoshes, which the watchman
had forgotten; he never dreamed for a moment that they were those of
Fortune; and they promised to do him good service in the wet; so he put
them on. The question now was, if he could squeeze himself through the
grating, for he had never tried before. Well, there he stood.

"Would to Heaven I had got my head through!" said he, involuntarily; and
instantly through it slipped, easily and without pain, notwithstanding
it was pretty large and thick. But now the rest of the body was to be
got through!

"Ah! I am much too stout," groaned he aloud, while fixed as in a vice.
"I had thought the head was the most difficult part of the matter--oh!
oh! I really cannot squeeze myself through!"

He now wanted to pull his over-hasty head back again, but he could not.
For his neck there was room enough, but for nothing more. His first
feeling was of anger; his next that his temper fell to zero. The
Shoes of Fortune had placed him in the most dreadful situation; and,
unfortunately, it never occurred to him to wish himself free. The
pitch-black clouds poured down their contents in still heavier torrents;
not a creature was to be seen in the streets. To reach up to the bell
was what he did not like; to cry aloud for help would have availed him
little; besides, how ashamed would he have been to be found caught in a
trap, like an outwitted fox! How was he to twist himself through! He saw
clearly that it was his irrevocable destiny to remain a prisoner till
dawn, or, perhaps, even late in the morning; then the smith must be
fetched to file away the bars; but all that would not be done so quickly
as he could think about it. The whole Charity School, just