way of teaching him what a good thing water
was,' said Peter; but the man, who liked strong drink, did not see the
joke.

'They do say,' said another, 'that she has lived in the old house over
there ever since the little princess left it. They say too that the
housekeeper knows all about it, and is hand and glove with the old
witch. I don't doubt they have many a nice airing together on
broomsticks. But I don't doubt either it's all nonsense, and there's
no such person at all.'

'When our cow died,' said another, 'she was seen going round and round
the cowhouse the same night. To be sure she left a fine calf behind
her--I mean the cow did, not the witch. I wonder she didn't kill that,
too, for she'll be a far finer cow than ever her mother was.'

'My old woman came upon her one night, not long before the water broke
out in the mine, sitting on a stone on the hillside with a whole
congregation of cobs about her. When they saw my wife they all
scampered off as fast as they could run, and where the witch was
sitting there was nothing to be seen but a withered bracken bush. I
made no doubt myself she was putting them up to it.'

And so they went on with one foolish tale after another, while Peter
put in a word now and then, and Curdie diligently held his peace. But
his silence at last drew attention upon it, and one of them said:

'Come, young Curdie, what are you thinking of?'

'How do you know I'm thinking of anything?' asked Curdie.

'Because you're not saying anything.'

'Does it follow then that, as you are saying so much, you're not
thinking at all?' said Curdie.

'I know what he's thinking,' said one who had not yet spoken; 'he's
thinking what a set of fools you are to talk such rubbish; as if ever
there was or could be such an old woman as you say! I'm sure Curdie
knows better than all that comes to.'

'I think,' said Curdie, 'it would be better that he who says anything
about her should be quite sure it is true, lest she should hear him,
and not like to be slandered.'

'But would she like it any better if it were true?' said the same man.
'If she is What they say--I don't know--but I never knew a man that
wouldn't go in a rage to be called the very thing he was.'

'If bad things were true of her, and I knew it,' said Curdie, 'I would
not hesitate to say them, for I will never give in to being afraid of
anything that's bad. I suspect that the things they tell, however, if
we knew all about t