on the premises."

"Oh! come, I say!" cried Sindbad; "that's my sneer, you know. Don't go
to putting the point of it the wrong way."

"Take it back, if it's the only one you have," retorted the Goblin, with
another wink at Davy.

"Thank you, I believe I will," replied Sindbad, meekly; and, as the
little house came along just then, they all stepped in at the door as it
went by. As they did so, to Davy's amazement, Sindbad and the Goblin
quietly vanished, and Davy, instead of being inside the house, found
himself standing in a dusty road, quite alone.

CHAPTER IX.

LAY-OVERS FOR MEDDLERS.

As Davy stood in the road, in doubt which way to go, a Roc came around
the corner of the house. She was a large bird, nearly six feet tall, and
was comfortably dressed, in a bonnet and a plaid shawl, and wore
overshoes. About her neck was hung a covered basket and a door-key; and
Davy at once concluded that she was Sindbad's house-keeper.

"I didn't mean to keep you waiting," said the Roc, leading the way along
the road; "but I declare that, what with combing that lawn every morning
with a fine tooth comb, and brushing those shells every evening with a
fine tooth-brush, I don't get time for anything else let alone feeding
the animals."

"What animals?" said Davy, beginning to be interested.

"Why, _his_, of course," said the Roc, rattling on in her harsh voice.
"There's an Emphasis and two Periodicals, and a Spotted Disaster, all
crawlin' and creepin' and screechin'"--

Here Davy, unable to control himself, burst into a fit of laughter, in
which the Roc joined heartily, rolling her head from side to side, and
repeating, "All crawlin' and creepin' and screechin'," over and over
again, as if that were the cream of the joke. Suddenly she stopped
laughing, and said in a low voice, "You don't happen to have a beefsteak
about you, do you?"

[Illustration]

Davy confessed that he had not, and the Roc continued, "Then I must go
back. Just hold my basket, like a good child." Here there was a
scuffling sound in the basket, and the Roc rapped on the cover with her
hard beak, and cried, "Hush!"

"What's in it?" said Davy, cautiously taking the basket.

"Lay-overs for meddlers," said the Roc, and, hurrying back along the
road, was soon out of sight.

"I wonder what they're like," said Davy to himself, getting down upon
his hands and knees and listening curiously with his ear against the
cover of the basket. The scuffling