o
follow the path where they had been shooting the day before, far across
the mountains.

He meant to return home before the early sunset; however, he did not do
so, and Elshender became very uneasy as he watched and waited in vain
till long after their usual supper-time. At last Fergus returned, wet
and exhausted, nor did he explain why he was so late.

But after supper when the two brothers were seated before the fire, on
which the peat crackled cheerfully, the dogs lying at their feet, and
the old woman's black cat sitting gravely with half-shut eyes on the
hearth between them, Fergus recovered himself and began to tell his
adventures.

"You must be wondering," said he, "what made me so late. I have had a
very, very strange adventure to-day. I hardly know what to say about it.
I went, as I told you I should, along our yesterday's track. A mountain
fog came on just as I was about to turn homewards, and I completely lost
my way. I wandered about for a long time not knowing where I was, till
at last I saw a light, and made for it, hoping to get help.

"As I came near it, it disappeared, and I found myself close to an old
oak tree. I climbed into the branches the better to look for the light,
and, behold! there it was right beneath me, inside the hollow trunk of
the tree. I seemed to be looking down into a church, where a funeral was
taking place. I heard singing, and saw a coffin surrounded by torches,
all carried by--But I know you won't believe me, Elshender, if I tell
you!"

His brother eagerly begged him to go on, and threw a dry peat on the
fire to encourage him. The dogs were sleeping quietly, but the cat was
sitting up, and seemed to be listening just as carefully and cannily as
Elshender himself. Both brothers, indeed, turned their eyes on the cat
as Fergus took up his story.

"Yes," he continued, "it is as true as I sit here. The coffin and the
torches were both carried by CATS, and upon the coffin were marked a
crown and a scepter!"

He got no farther, for the black cat started up, shrieking:--

"My stars! old Peter's dead, and I'm the King o' the Cats!"--Then rushed
up the chimney, and was seen no more.

THE STRANGE VISITOR

AN ENGLISH FOLK-TALE

BY JOSEPH JACOBS

A woman was sitting at her reel one night; and still she sat, and still
she reeled, and still she wished for company.

In came a pair of broad, broad soles, and sat down
at the fireside!

And still she sat, and still she re