At first he could not remember what had happened to him , but by-and-by he jumped up and went into all the rooms , which he examined carefully . ` How foolish to bid me to put sand on the floors , ' he thought , ` when there is nobody here by myself ! I shall do nothing of the sort . ' 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 XXXXX , back to the house . '
At about after as because for in on till with