ear. But this is no bigger than--let me see--I
think it is most like a fox. I should like to make it speak to me.
They would think so much of me at home, if I had talked with Nipen."

So he began gently, "Is that Nipen?"

The thing moved its bushy tail, but did not answer.

"There is no cake for you to-night, Nipen. I hope the ale will do. Is
the ale good, Nipen?"

Off went the dark creature, without a word, as quick as it could go.

"Is it offended?" thought Oddo: "or is it really what it looks like,--a
fox? If it does not come back, I will go down presently, and see
whether it has drunk the ale. If not, I shall think it is only a fox."

He presently let himself down to the ground by the way he had come up,
and eagerly laid hold of the ale-can. It would not stir. It was as
fast on the ground as if it was enchanted, which Oddo did not doubt was
the case; and he started back, with more fear than he had yet had. The
cold he felt on this exposed spot soon reminded him, however, that the
can was probably frozen to the snow,--which it might well be, after
being brought warm from the fire-side. It was so. The vessel had sunk
an inch into the snow, and was there fixed by the frost.

None of the ale seemed to have been drunk; and so cold was Oddo by this
time, that he longed for a sup of it. He took first a sup, and then a
draught: and then he remembered that the rest would be entirely spoiled
by the frost if it stood another hour. This would be a pity, he
thought; so he finished it, saying to himself that he did not believe
Nipen would come that night.

At that very moment he heard a cry so dreadful that it shot, like sudden
pain, through every nerve of his body. It was not a shout of anger: it
was something between a shriek and a wail,--like what he fancied would
be the cry of a person in the act of being murdered. That Nipen was
here now, he could not doubt; and at length Oddo fled. He fled the
faster, at first, for hearing the rustle of wings; but the curiosity of
the boy even now got the better of his terror, and he looked up at the
barn where the wings were rustling. There he saw, in the starlight, the
glitter of two enormous round eyes, shining down upon him from the ridge
of the roof. But it struck him at once that he had seen those eyes
before. He checked his speed, stopped, went back a little, sprang up
once more into the gallery, hissed, waved his cap, and clapped his
hands, till the echoes