or Master One-eye, who grabbed him and chastised him,
bidding him call:

"The one side gives good light, I wish the other did!
The one side gives good light, I wish the other did!"

So he did, to be sure, till he came to a house, one side of which was on
fire. The people here thought it was he who had set the place a-blazing,
and straightway put him in prison. The end was, the judge put on his
black cap, and condemned him to die.

The Lambton Worm

A wild young fellow was the heir of Lambton, the fine estate and hall by
the side of the swift-flowing Wear. Not a Mass would he hear in
Brugeford Chapel of a Sunday, but a-fishing he would go. And if he did
not haul in anything, his curses could be heard by the folk as they went
by to Brugeford.

Well, one Sunday morning he was fishing as usual, and not a salmon had
risen to him, his basket was bare of roach or dace. And the worse his
luck, the worse grew his language, till the passers-by were horrified at
his words as they went to listen to the Mass-priest.

At last young Lambton felt a mighty tug at his line. "At last," quoth
he, "a bite worth having!" and he pulled and he pulled, till what should
appear above the water but a head like an elf's, with nine holes on each
side of its mouth. But still he pulled till he had got the thing to
land, when it turned out to be a Worm of hideous shape. If he had cursed
before, his curses were enough to raise the hair on your head.

"What ails thee, my son?" said a voice by his side, "and what hast thou
caught, that thou shouldst stain the Lord's Day with such foul
language?"

Looking round, young Lambton saw a strange old man standing by him.

"Why, truly," he said, "I think I have caught the devil himself. Look
you and see if you know him."

But the stranger shook his head, and said, "It bodes no good to thee or
thine to bring such a monster to shore. Yet cast him not back into the
Wear; thou has caught him, and thou must keep him," and with that away
he turned, and was seen no more.

The young heir of Lambton took up the gruesome thing, and, taking it off
his hook, cast it into a well close by, and ever since that day that
well has gone by the name of the Worm Well.

For some time nothing more was seen or heard of the Worm, till one day
it had outgrown the size of the well, and came forth full-grown. So it
came forth from the well and betook itself to the Wear. And all day long
it would lie coiled r