how very small, but they seemed to belong
to young creatures of their kind.

"Hullo, I say, what have you got there? Do let's look; you might as
well."

Then a pause--another voice: "I believe it's a bad one."

_Number one_: "Taste it."

_Number two_, after another pause, with a slight sound (very diminutive)
of spitting: "Heugh! bad! I should rather think it was. Maggot!"

_Number one_ (after laughing rather longer than I thought kind): "Look
here--don't chuck it away--let's give it to the old man. Here--shove the
piece in again and rub it over--here he is!" (Very demurely): "O sir,
we've got such a nice-looking----" (_I could not catch what it was_)
"here; we thought you might perhaps like it, sir. Would you, sir?... Oh
no, thank you, sir, we've had plenty, sir, but this was the biggest we
found."

A third voice said something; it was a deeper one and less easy to hear.

_Number two_: "Bitten, sir? Oh no, I don't think so. Do you ----?" (_a
name which I did not make out_).

_Number one_: "Why, how could it be?"

_Number three_ again--angry, I thought.

_Number two_ (rather anxiously): "But, sir, really, sir, I don't much
like them.... Must I really, sir?... O _sir_, it's got a maggot in it,
and I believe they're poison." (_Smack, smack, smack, smack._)

Two voices, very lamentable: "O _sir_, sir, please sir!"

A considerable pause, and sniffing. Then _Number two_, in a broken
voice: "You silly fool, why did you go laughing like that right under
his snout? You might have known he'd cog it." ("Cog." I had not heard
the word since 1876.) "There'll be an awful row to-morrow. Look here, I
shall go to bed."

The voices died away; I thought _Number one_ seemed to be apologizing.

That was all I heard _that_ night. After eleven o'clock things seemed to
get very still, and I began to feel just a little apprehensive lest
something of a less innocent kind should come along. So I went to bed.

III

THE SECOND JAR

Next day, I must say, was very amusing. I spent the whole of it in the
fields just strolling about and sitting down, as the fancy took me,
listening to what went on in the trees and hedges. I will not write down
yet the kind of thing I heard, for it was only the beginning. I had not
yet found out the way of using the new power to the very best advantage.
I felt the want of being able to put in a remark or a question of my own
every now and then. But I was pretty sure that the jar which had