in the other corner was
still liker gold, and was indeed greater than gold, for it was
life--the heap, namely, of corn threshed from the straw: Gibbie
recognized this as what he had seen given to horses. But now the
temptation to sleep, with such facilities presented, was
overpowering, and took from him all desire to examine further: he
shot into the middle of the loose heap of straw, and vanished from
the glimpses of the moon, burrowing like a mole. In the heart of
the golden warmth, he lay so dry and comfortable that,
notwithstanding his hunger had waked with him, he was presently in a
faster sleep than before. And indeed what more luxurious bed, or
what bed conducive to softer slumber was there in the world to find!

"The moving moon went down the sky," the cold wind softened and grew
still; the stars swelled out larger; the rats came, and then came
puss, and the rats went with a scuffle and patter; the pagan grey
came in like a sleep-walker, and made the barn dreary as a dull
dream; then the horses began to fidget with their big feet, the
cattle to low with their great trombone throats, and the cocks to
crow as if to give warning for the last time against the devil, the
world, and the flesh; the men in the adjoining chamber woke, yawned,
stretched themselves mightily, and rose; the god-like sun rose after
them, and, entering the barn with them, drove out the grey; and
through it all the orphan lay warm in God's keeping and his nest of
straw, like the butterfly of a huge chrysalis.

When at length Gibbie became once more aware of existence, it was
through a stormy invasion of the still realm of sleep; the blows of
two flails fell persistent and quick-following, first on the thick
head of the sheaf of oats untied and cast down before them, then
grew louder and more deafening as the oats flew and the chaff
fluttered, and the straw flattened and broke and thinned and
spread--until at last they thundered in great hard blows on the
wooden floor. It was the first of these last blows that shook
Gibbie awake. What they were or indicated he could not tell. He
wormed himself softly round in the straw to look out and see.

Now whether it was that sleep was yet heavy upon him, and bewildered
his eyes, or that his imagination had in dreams been busy with
foregone horrors, I cannot tell; but, as he peered through the
meshes of the crossing and blinding straws, what he seemed to see
was the body of an old man with dish