The air was
fresh, not to say chilly; but it was a glorious night, though
everything but the wind and Tommy seemed asleep. The stones, the walls,
the gleaming lanes, were so intensely still; the church tower in the
valley seemed awake and watching, but silent; the houses in the village
round it had all their eyes shut, that is, their window-blinds down;
and it seemed to Tommy as if the very moors had drawn white sheets over
them, and lay sleeping also.

"Hoot! hoot!" said a voice from the fir plantation behind him. Somebody
else was awake, then. "It's the Old Owl," said Tommy; and there she
came, swinging heavily across the moor with a flapping stately flight,
and sailed into the shed by the mere. The old lady moved faster than
she seemed to do, and though Tommy ran hard she was in the shed some
time before him. When he got in, no bird was to be seen, but he heard a
crunching sound from above, and looking up, there sat the Old Owl,
pecking and tearing and munching at some shapeless black object, and
blinking at him--Tommy--with yellow eyes.

"Oh dear!" said Tommy, for he didn't much like it.

The Old Owl dropped the black mass on to the floor; and Tommy did not
care somehow to examine it.

"Come up! come up!" said she hoarsely.

She could speak, then! Beyond all doubt it was _the_ Old Owl, and none
other. Tommy shuddered.

"Come up here! come up here!" said the Old Owl.

The Old Owl sat on a beam that ran across the shed. Tommy had often
climbed up for fun; and he climbed up now, and sat face to face with
her, and thought her eyes looked as if they were made of flame.

"Kiss my fluffy face," said the Owl.

Her eyes were going round like flaming catherine wheels, but there are
certain requests which one has not the option of refusing. Tommy crept
nearer, and put his lips to the round face out of which the eyes shone.
Oh! it was so downy and warm, so soft, so indescribably soft. Tommy's
lips sank into it, and couldn't get to the bottom. It was unfathomable
feathers and fluffiness.

"Now, what do you want?" said the Owl.

"Please," said Tommy, who felt rather re-assured, "can you tell me
where to find the Brownies, and how to get one to come and live with
us?"

"Oohoo!" said the Owl, "that's it, is it? I know of three Brownies."

"Hurrah!" said Tommy. "Where do they live?"

"In your house," said the Owl.

Tommy was aghast.

"In our house!" he exclaimed. "Whereabouts? Let me rummage them out.
Why do t