out his shrunken hand, and said:
"Tell me truly, witch-hare. A voice in the night was merry with me, and
told me for pleasure that my brothers Thumb and Thimble were frizzling
on the cannibal Minimuls' spits. That is not true?"

"'One long and lean,'" said Mishcha, "'one fat and very heavy, and one
sly and tiny, a Nizza-neela.' Here's the Nizza-neela Mulla-mulgar; I
know nothing of the others."

"Ah, then," said Nod, starting up out of his bed, "I must be off to look
for them. Their Little Horses ran faster than mine. And mine, he was a
coward, and nibbled my sore shoulder to make me loose hold. But he could
not buck or scrape me off, witch-hare, tried he never so hard. I must be
off at once to look for my brothers. If they are dead, then I die too."

"Well, well," said the old hare, "it's sad to die, but it's sadder to
live alone. But tell me first one thing," she said. "Where have these
strange Mulgars come from in their rags and bravery?"

"Ohe," said Nod, and told her who they were.

"And tell me just one thing more," she said, when he had finished.
"Where, little Mulgar, is all this Magic I can smell?"

And at that question Nod thought he could never keep from laughing. But
he looked very solemn, and said: "There are three things, old hare, I
always carry about with me--one is my sheep's-jacket, one is hunger, and
the other is Magic; and the Magic just now is where my hunger is."

The old hare eyed him narrowly. "Well," she said, "wherever it is, if it
hadn't been for the Magic, little Mulgar, the Jaccatrays would have been
quarrelling over your bones. But there! remember old Mishcha sometimes
in your travels, who hated every Mulgar except just one little one!" She
bade him be very quiet, for her sister, after the night's talk, still
lay fast asleep, her eyes wide open, in the gloom.

And she put Ukka-nuts, and dried berries and fruits of many kinds, and
seven pepper-pods into his pockets, and buttoned the flaps. And she gave
him also some powdered physic-nuts, three bright-blue Candar-seeds, and
a little bunch of faded saffron-flower for a protection against the
teeth of the dreaded Coccadrillo. She tied up his shoulder with soft
clean moss, and fetched him a stout stick for cudgel out of the forest.
And then she hobbled out with him to see him on his way. Dawn lay rosy
and still upon the snow-laden branches.

"Where burns the Sulemn[=a]gar, old hare?" said Nod, pretending utter
bravery. And the wise old