s
pitchfork would break my back, and to hook a great perch, like Miller
Mealy, in the mill-race, might be the capsizing of me. Still, what does
that matter? I can catch little sprats for my little wife's dinner; I
can dig in our patch of garden, and mend our tiny roof, so that we live
as cosily and as merrily as the best of them."

"To be sure, Wattie dear!" said Mattie. "And what would become of poor
me supposing thou wert any bigger? As it is, I can bake the little
loaves thou lovest to eat, and I can spin and knit enough for us both.
But, oh, dear! wert thou the size of Farmer Fairweather or Miller Mealy,
my heart would break."

In truth the little couple had made many attempts at pushing their
fortune in the village; and had failed, because it was no easy problem
to find a trade to suit poor Wattie. A friendly cobbler had taught him
how to make boots and shoes, new soling and mending; and he once had the
courage to suspend over his door the sign of a shoemaker's shop. Then
the good wives of Langaffer did really give him orders for tiny slippers
for their little ones to toddle about in. But, alas! ere the work was
completed and sent home, the little feet had got time to trot about a
good deal, and had far outgrown the brand-new shoes; and poor Wattie
acquired the character of a tardy tradesman. "So shoemaking won't do,"
he had said to Mattie. "If only the other folk would remain as little as
we are!"

In spite of this, Wattie and Mattie not only continued to be liked by
their neighbours, but in time grew to be highly respected by all who
knew them. Wattie could talk a great deal, and could give a reason for
everything; and his dwarf figure might be seen of an evening sitting on
the edge of the bridge wall, surrounded by a group of village worthies,
whilst his shrill little voice rose high above theirs, discussing the
affairs of Langaffer. And little Mattie was the very echo of little
Wattie. What _he_ said _she_ repeated on his authority in many a
half-hour's gossip with the good wives by the village well.

Now it happened that one day the homely community of Langaffer was
startled by sudden and alarming tidings. A traveller, hastening on foot
through the village, asked the first person he met, "What news of the
war?"

"What war?" returned the simple peasant in some surprise.

"Why, have you really heard nothing of the great armies marching about
all over the country, attacking, besieging and fighting in pitch