w,' says she, 'take me back and put me into the river agin, where
you found me.'

"'Oh, my lady,' says the sojer, 'how could I have the heart to drownd a
beautiful lady like you?'

"But before he could say another word the lady was vanished, and there
he saw the little throut an the ground. Well, he put it in a clane
plate, and away he run for the bare life, for fear her lover would come
while she was away; and he run, and he run, ever till he came to the
cave agin, and threw the throut into the river. The minit he did, the
wather was as red as blood until the sthrame washed the stain away; and
to this day there's a little red mark an the throut's side where it was
cut.

"Well, sir, from that day out the sojer was an althered man, and
reformed his ways, and wint to his duty reg'lar, and fasted three times
a week--though it was never fish he tuk an fastin' days; for afther the
fright he got fish id never rest an his stomach--savin' your presence.
But, anyhow, he was an althered man, as I said before; and in coorse o'
time he left the army, and turned hermit at last; and they say he _used
to pray evermore for the sowl of the White Throut_."

SAMUEL LOVER.

The Wonderful Cake

A mouse, a rat, and a little red hen once lived together in the same
cottage, and one day the little red hen said, "Let us bake a cake and
have a feast." "Let us," says the mouse, and "let us," says the rat.
"Who'll go and get the wheat ground?" says the hen. "I won't," says the
mouse; "I won't," says the rat. "I will myself," says the little red
hen.

"Who'll make the cake?" "I won't," says the mouse; "I will," says the
rat. "Indeed, you shall not," says the little red hen.

Well, while the hen was stretching her hand out for it--"Hey Presto!"
out rolled the cake from the cottage, and after it ran the mouse, the
rat, and the little red hen.

When it was running away it went by a barn full of threshers, and they
asked it where it was running. "Oh," says it, "I'm running away from the
mouse, the rat, and the little red hen, and from you, too, if I can." So
they rushed away after it with their flails, and it ran, and it ran till
it came to a ditch full of ditchers, and they asked it where it was
running.

"Oh, I am running away from the mouse, the rat, and the little red hen,
and from a barn full of threshers, and from you, too, if I can."

Well, they all ran after it along with the rest, till it came to a well
full of washers, a