s--knew they were cheeses, and
good to eat, though whence and how they came he did not know, his
impression being that they grew in the fields like the turnips. He
had still the notion uncorrected, that things in the country
belonged to nobody in particular, and were mostly for the use of
animals, with which, since he became a wanderer, he had almost come
to class himself. He was very hungry. He pounced upon a cheese and
lifted it between his two hands; it smelled good, but felt very
hard. That was no matter: what else were teeth made strong and
sharp for? He tried them on one of the round edges, and, nibbling
actively, soon got through to the softer body of the cheese. But he
had not got much farther when he heard the men returning, and
desisted, afraid of being discovered by the noise he made. The
readiest way to conceal himself was to lie down flat on the loft,
and he did so just where he could see the threshing-floor over the
edge of it by lifting his head. This, however, he scarcely ventured
to do; and all he could see as he lay was the tip of the swing-bar
of one of the flails, ever as it reached the highest point of its
ascent. But to watch for it very soon ceased to be interesting; and
although he had eaten so little of the cheese, it had yet been
enough to make him dreadfully thirsty, therefore he greatly desired
to get away. But he dared not go down: with their sticks those men
might knock him over in a moment! So he lay there thinking of the
poor little hedgehog he had seen on the road as he came; how he
stood watching it, and wishing he had a suit made all of great pins,
which he could set up when he pleased; and how the driver of a cart,
catching sight of him at the foot of the hedge, gave him a blow with
his whip, and, poor fellow! notwithstanding his clothes of pins,
that one blow of a whip was too much for him! There seemed nothing
in the world but killing!

At length he could, unoccupied with something else, bear his thirst
no longer, and, squirming round on the floor, crept softly towards
the other end of the loft, to see what was to be seen there.

He found that the heap of hay was not in the loft at all. It filled
a small chamber in the stable, in fact; and when Gibbie clambered
upon it, what should he see below him on the other side, but a
beautiful white horse, eating some of the same sort of stuff he was
now lying upon! Beyond he could see the backs of more horses, but
they wer