t at last the mother thought there must be something in it.

II.

So the mother made some porridge, and Nan began to eat it.

At the first plateful she could look over the table; at the second she
reached up to her mother's shoulder; at the third she was taller than
her mother.

"Stop! stop!" said the mother, as Nan began upon the fourth plate;
"you'll be a giantess; and your legs are so thin, I am afraid they will
break in two. You look as if you were on stilts."

"One must have long legs," said Nan, "in order to run fast. It was the
woolly dog that thought of it," she added, and she would have stooped
down to pat the toy dog, with its red morocco collar, but she was so
high up that she found it a difficult matter to bend down. "I am as
stiff as a poker," said she.

The woolly dog, however, understood what she wanted, and he jumped upon
a chair, then upon the table, and finally into Nan's arms.

She would have given him some porridge, but her mother said--

"No; if he should grow as tall as you, we should not know what to do
with him."

Then the little dog laughed.

"Perhaps he will run away with the spoon," said Nan.

But no; he was an honest little dog, and did not think of doing anything
of the kind.

III.

On the opposite side of the house was an old gentleman in a velvet cap.
He had a paper in his hand, and was trying to teach something to a boy
who was on the other side of the trellis. But the boy was not attending
to him, though he kept his eyes fixed upon the paper.

No; he was muttering--

"The little cat was in the house, and the house moved away. It must have
been an enchanted house and an enchanted cat."

"What are you saying?" asked the old gentleman. "That is not on the
paper."

Then the boy looked up and said--

"If I'd seven-leagued boots, I'd go after them."

"That is certainly not written down there," answered the old gentleman.
"Of what are you thinking, Ulick?"

"Of the house that stood close by this house. I had a dream last night
that it moved away, and that the little cat with which I played had also
gone, and I want to go after them."

"You talk nonsense, Ulick. How can a house made of bricks and mortar and
heavy beams of wood move away?"

"That I know not; but it is gone. I hear it now rumbling away in the
distance, as if it were on great wheels--I do really," answered Ulick.

[Illustration: "THE MOTHER ... WAS KNEELING BESIDE A LITTLE CHILD" (_p.
361_).]

T