t the Stranger's eyes were
fastened on the churn that stood behind her, the churn evidently full
and drawn out for use, with drops of rich yellow cream still standing
upon the lid and trickling down the sides.

Moll turned her square shoulders upon the churn as if to shut out its
witness to her falsehood. Her lies came thick and fast; 'I tell you
there is not a single drop of cream in the house.'

The next moment, a loud crash made her look round. She had forgotten
Jan! The loud angry voice and the cold blast from the open door had
awakened him before he had had time to get sound asleep. Hearing his
mother vow that she had not a drop of cream in the house, he left his
rug and began playing about again. Then, being ever a restless little
mortal, he had crept round to the churn to see if it had really become
empty in such a short time. He had tried to pull himself up by one of
the legs in order to stand on the rim and see if there was really no
cream inside; and in attempting this feat, naturally, he had pulled
the whole churn over upon him. And not only the churn,--its contents
too! Eighteen quarts of Moll's richest yellow cream were streaming all
over the kitchen floor. Pools, lakes, rivers, seas of cream were
running over the flagstones and dripping through the crevices into the
ground.

With a cry of rage Moll turned, and, seeing the damage, she sprang
upon little Jan and beat him soundly; and a beating from Moll's heavy
hand was no small matter: then with a curse she flung the child away
from her towards the hearth.

'Woman!' The Stranger's voice recalled her. 'Woman! Beware! Thou art
full of lies and fury and deceit, yet in the name of the Lord I warn
thee. Ere three days have gone by, thou shalt know what is in thine
heart; and thou shalt learn the power of that which was, and is, and
will be!'

So saying, the unwelcome guest opened the outer door and walked away
into the raging storm and darkness,--a less bitter storm it seemed to
him now than that created by the violent woman within doors. Some way
further on he espied a haystack, under which he lay down, as he had
done on many another night before this, and there he slept in the wind
and the snow until morning.

Moll, meanwhile, enraged beyond words at the loss of her cream,
stalked off for a pail and cloth, and set herself to wash the floor,
muttering curses as she did so. Never a glance did she cast at the
corner by the fire where little Jan still lay