ugh a crevice in the
cow-shed, saw her stand contentedly munching at a large bowlful of corn.

"So Bill did find the key. I'm very glad," thought the kind little
maiden, and to make sure looked again, when--what do you think she
beheld squatting on the manger? Something brown--either a large brown
rat, or a small brown man. But she held her tongue, since, being a very
little girl, people sometimes laughed at her for the strange things she
saw. She was quite certain she did see them, for all that.

So she and the rest of the children went indoors and to bed. When they
were fast asleep, something happened. Something so curious, that the
youngest boy, who, thinking he heard Jess neighing, got up to look out,
was afraid to tell, lest he too should be laughed at, and went back to
bed immediately.

In the middle of the night, a little old brown man carrying a lantern,
or at least having a light in his hand that looked like a lantern--went
and unlocked Jess's stable, and patted her pretty head. At first she
started, but soon she grew quiet and pleased, and let him do what he
chose with her. He began rubbing her down, making the same funny hissing
with his mouth that Bill did, and all grooms do--I never could find out
why. But Jess evidently liked it, and stood as good as possible.

[Illustration: Up the bank she scrambled, her long hair dripping.--Page
55]

"Isn't it nice to be clean?" said the wee man, talking to her as if she
were a human being, or a Brownie. "And I dare say your poor little
legs ache with standing so long. Shall we have a run together? the moon
shines bright in the clear, cold night. Dear me! I'm talking poetry."

But Brownies are not poetical fairies, quite commonplace, and up to all
sorts of work. So, while he talked, he was saddling and bridling Jess,
she not objecting in the least. Finally, he jumped on her back.

"'Off, said the stranger--off, off, and away!'" sang Brownie mimicking a
song of the Cook's. People in that house often heard their songs
repeated in the oddest way, from room to room, everybody fancying it was
somebody else that did it. But it was only the Brownie. "Now, 'A
southerly wind and a cloudy sky proclaim a hunting morning!'"

Or night--for it was the middle of the night, though bright as day--and
Jess galloped and the Brownie sat on her back as merrily as if they had
gone hunting together all their days.

Such a steeple-chase it was! They cleared the farmyard at a single
b