the key felt growing heavier and heavier,
till he expected it every minute to tumble through and come out at his
boots--convicting him before all the children of having told a lie.

Nobody was in the habit of telling lies to them, so they never suspected
him, but went innocently searching about for the key--Bill all the while
clutching it fast. But every time he touched it, he felt his fingers
pinched, as if there was a cockroach in his pocket--or little
lobster--or something, anyhow, that had claws. At last, fairly
frightened, he made an excuse to go into the cow-shed, took the key out
of his pocket and looked at it, and finally hid it in a corner of the
manger, among the hay.

As he did so, he heard a most extraordinary laugh, which was certainly
not from Dolly the cow, and, as he went out of the shed, he felt the
same sort of pinch at his ankles, which made him so angry that he kept
striking with his whip in all directions, but hit nobody for nobody was
there.

But Jess--who, as soon as she heard the children's voices, set up a most
melancholy whinnying behind the locked stable-door--began to neigh
energetically. And Boxer barked, and the hens cackled, and the
guinea-fowls cried "Come back, come back!" in their usual insane
fashion--indeed, the whole farmyard seemed in such an excited state,
that the children got frightened lest Gardener should scold them, and
ran away, leaving Bill master of the field.

What an idle day he had! How he sat on the wall with his hands in his
pockets, and lounged upon the fence, and sauntered around the garden! At
length, absolutely tired of doing nothing, he went and talked with the
Gardener's wife while she was hanging out her clothes. Gardener had gone
down to the lower field, with all the little folks after him, so that he
knew nothing of Bill's idling, or it might have come to an end.

By-and-by Bill thought it was time to go home to his supper. "But first
I'll give Jess her corn," said he, "double quantity, and then I need not
come back to give her her breakfast so early in the morning. Soh! you
greedy beast! I'll be at you presently, if you don't stop that noise."

For Jess, at sound of his footsteps, was heard to whinny in the most
imploring manner, enough to have melted a heart of stone.

"The key--where on earth did I put the key?" cried Bill, whose constant
habit it was to lay things out of his hand and then forget where he had
put them, causing himself endless loss o