as open, the two
men came out with their blackthorns, and they began to hit at the ladies
and gentlemen near them, and to beat them, till they ran to hide in
every corner. And the landlord called out for them to stop, but the
farmer said they would not till he would get his own bottle again.

'So they gave it to him then, and he went home bringing the two bottles
with him. And he lived in plenty ever after till he died.

'But someway at his wake, with all that was going on there, the two
bottles got broken, or if they did not they were lost.'

* * * * *

Then another said: 'There was a servant-girl left to mind her master's
house one time. And she heard a noise below the window, and she opened
it to look out. And she saw the hand of a man on the window ledge, that
was climbing up to rob the house. And when he put his hand up, she took
a little hatchet she had and cut his hand off.

'The same thing happened with another man and another after him again,
till she had killed six. But when she was striking at the seventh, he
drew back, and all she cut off was his finger.

'When the master came back, she got great praise and great reward, so
that she had plenty of money. And one day a man came to ask her in
marriage; and she did not know him to be the robber that escaped, and
she married him.

'But after a while he brought her out through the fields to where there
was a little bridge over the river. And when they got to it, he told her
he was the man she had cut the finger off, and that he had brought her
there to kill her.

'"Give me time to say my prayers first," she said. So he gave her time
for that, and she knelt down; and presently she turned round and he was
on the bridge beside her, and she gave him a push into the water. And
that was the end of the seventh of the robbers.

'And then she went home again. That's my story.'

* * * * *

And then the old man, whose brother has fought for the king, and hasn't
sent him anything, said:

'Peace is made. That's my story. Will you give me tobacco for that?'

But this being the last day, they all had tobacco--story-tellers and
all.

* * * * *

And here is the last story: 'There was a steward one time in the
employment of a gentleman; and he was a good, honourable man. And he
used to make the Sunday begin at twelve o'clock on Saturday; and to ring
the bell then for the