And so he shut the doors quickly , and only cleaned and set in order his own room . And after the first few days he felt that that was unnecessary too , because no one came there to see if the rooms where clean or not . At last he did no work at all , but just sat and wondered what was behind the locked door , till he determined to go and look for himself . The key turned easily in the lock . Hans entered , half frightened at what he was doing , and the first thing he beheld was a heap of bones . That was not very cheerful ; and he was just going out again when his eye fell on a shelf of books . Here was a good way of passing the time , he thought , for he was fond of reading , and he took one of the books from the shelf . It was all about magic , and told you how you could change yourself into anything in the world you liked . Could anything be more exciting or more useful ? So he put it in his pocket , and ran quickly away out of the mountain by a little door which had been left open . When he got home his parents asked him what he had been doing and where he had got the fine clothes he wore . ` Oh , I earned them myself , ' answered he . ` You never earned them in this short time , ' said his father . ` Be off with you ; I wo n't keep you here . I will have no thieves in my house ! ' ` Well I only came to help you , ' replied the boy sulkily . ` Now I 'll be off , as you wish ; but to-morrow morning when you rise you will see a great dog at the door . Do not drive it away , but take it to the castle and sell it to the duke , and they will give you ten dollars for it ; only you must bring the strap you lead it with , back to the house . ' Sure enough the next day the dog was standing at the door waiting to be let in . The old man was rather afraid of getting into trouble , but his wife urged him to sell the dog as the boy had bidden him , so he took it up to the castle and sold it to the duke for ten dollars .
But he did not forget XXXXX take off the strap with which he had led the animal , and to carry it home .
At about after as behind from of on till to