il to her, and admitted that she had powers
which could not be trifled with. It is also a fact that she had cured
some of my cattle which had been stung by adders, by charming them,
while, on the other hand, my father believed that she had, at Richard
Tresidder's bidding, ill-wished his cows. She had on several occasions
cured terrible diseases which the doctor from Falmouth said were
incurable, and I have heard it said that when Mr. John Wesley visited
Cornwall, and was told about her, the great man looked very grave, and
expressed a belief in her power. This being so, it is no wonder I did
not like to offend her; neither had I any reason for doing so. She had
been kind to me, and once, when I had scarlet fever, gave me some stuff
that cured me even when Dr. Martin said I should be dead in a few hours.
Besides, according to my father's promise, I had been friendly with Eli,
her son. Now, Eli was several years older than I, but he never grew to
be more than about four feet high, and was the most ill-formed creature
I have ever seen. He had bow legs, a hump back, and was what was called
"double-chested." His thick black hair grew down close to his eyes,
which eyes, in addition to being very wild and strange-looking, were
wrongly set, so that no one could tell which way he was looking. He was
rather sickly-looking, too, and was thought to be very weak. But this I
know to be wrong. Eli, ill-formed as he was, was much stronger than most
men, nature having endowed his sinews with wondrous hardness and powers
of endurance. Eli did no work, but lived by poaching and begging food at
the farmhouses. As Betsey's son he was never refused, especially as some
believed he had inherited his mother's powers.

Well I entered the cottage and sat on a wooden stool while Eli sat in a
corner of the open fireplace and looked at me steadfastly with one eye,
and with the other saw what was going on out in the road.

"Well," said Betsey, "and so you found out what Nick Tresidder wanted to
do, then? An' I 'ear as 'ow you've nearly killed 'im."

"How do you know?" I asked.

"How do I knaw? How do I knaw everything? But you'll be paid out,
Maaster Jasper! Tell y' Dick Tresidder 'll pay 'ee out. I c'n zee et
comin'."

"See what coming?" I asked.

"Look 'ee, Maaster Jasper; 'ave 'ee bin to zee yer Granfer Quethiock
lately?"

"No."

"Then you be a vool, Jasper--tell y' you be a vool. Wy, 'ee's nearly
dead; he may be dead by now. What 'bout