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shouting all the rude words we knew. And we knew some, I can tell you ... We thought that was fun, shouting words at him when we could get off and run and he had to go on standing there and couldn't do a thing about it. Only one day he did it and Wilhelm fell under the tram and got crushed.'
    Heide shook his head.
    'They blamed me for that. They said I'd led him into trouble, but it wasn't true, I was younger than he was. It wasn't my fault he died ... I wanted to have his shoes, only they wouldn't fit me. I was bigger than Wilhelm. Younger but bigger, see? Wilhelm was always a skinny little bugger. So they gave his shoes to Ruth, but that was just a waste. She didn't need them for long on account of she was bought by some rich people in Linz - well, THEY called it adoption, only my old man got money for it so what I call it is selling her. She didn't half cry when she knew she'd got to go. The old man beat her black and blue until she stopped ... He got fifty marks for Ruth. It mightn't sound much to you, but it was a fortune to us, I can tell you. Kept the old man in booze for a few days, any rate ... He'd have sold the whole lot of us, if anyone'd been willing to buy, but no one wanted a couple of snotty-nosed brats. That's what he said. He went out and got plastered that night and when he came back we hid under the roof and didn't come down till he'd passed out, but anyway he beat us just the same in the morning ... It wasn't long after that when I came home from school one day and found the old lady sitting on the bed, weeping. I remember that day. I shall always remember that day.'
    Heide glanced up at the falling snow, then held out his hand to his hated enemy, the leader of the dog team, the mangy yellow cur he was always threatening to punch in the throat. To our amazement, the dog crawled up on its belly and began earnestly licking Heide's face, while Heide thoughtfully scratched behind its ear. By this time, we were all listening to his story.
    'I never knew why she was weeping,' he said. 'But I sat down on the bed with her and I started weeping, too, and we just wept together until I fell asleep. The other kids weren't there, I don't know where they'd gone. Playing in the streets, I expect. Anyway, it was dark when I woke up. I knew something was wrong - you know how you do? I could feel the old lady still lying there, but it was like being alone, all by myself. I couldn't hear her breathing or anything. I was so scared I couldn't move ... After a bit, I lit the candles and she was just lying there, staring up at the ceiling with her eyes wide open. I knew at once she was dead. I was only ten - nine and a half - but even at that age you know when someone's dead.'
    Heide suddenly looked directly at us, and his hard blue eyes, were full of tears.
    'My mother,' he said, very earnestly, 'was a good woman. She came from a good family. Respectable and hard working. She never used to beat us or swear at us. And you can believe this, or not, but I'm telling you it's the truth, my mother never once got drunk in all her life. The old man tried to make her, once. Him and one of our neighbours. They tried to force a bottle of booze down her. But she wasn't having any of it. You know what she did? She got hold of the bottle and she bashed the old man over the head with it. And when he got mad at her, she simply picked up the breadknife and stuck it into him,' Heide chuckled, reflectively. 'That put a stop to it, I can tell you! He had to have a couple of stitches, put in his leg ... Of course, he beat the hell out of her afterwards. That was only to be expected. But he couldn't force her to do anything she thought was wrong.'
    'What happened that time you were talking about?' demanded Little John, suddenly breaking in on the monologue. 'When you woke up and found her?'
    Heide scratched at his frostbitten face, removed a scab and handed it to the dog. The dog sniffed at it suspiciously, then ate it. Heide frowned.,
    'The old man