The next idea naturally rising was the burn; he tumbled down over the straw heap to the floor of the barn, and made for the cat-hole.

But the moment he put his head out, he saw the legs of a man: the farmer was walking through his ricks, speculating on the money they held.

He drew back, and looked round to see where best he could betake himself should he come in.

He spied thereupon a ladder leaning against the end-wall of the barn, opposite the loft and the stables, and near it in the wall a wooden shutter, like the door of a little cupboard.

He got up the ladder, and opening the shutter, which was fastened only with a button, found a hole in the wall, through which popping his head too carelessly, he knocked from a shelf some piece of pottery, which fell with a great crash on a paved floor.