dor, and the perils of them that meddle
wantonly with the unseen Powers; and therein he referred especially to
the strange noise in the neighbourhood, and upbraided us for want of
faith, and many other backslidings. We listened to him very earnestly,
for we like to hear from our betters about things that are beyond us,
and to be roused up now and then, like sheep with a good dog after them,
who can pull some wool without biting. Nevertheless we could not see how
our want of faith could have made that noise, especially at night time,
notwithstanding which we believed it, and hoped to do a little better.

And so we all came home from church; and most of the people dined with
us, as they always do on Sundays, because of the distance to go home,
with only words inside them. The parson, who always sat next to mother,
was afraid that he might have vexed us, and would not have the best
piece of meat, according to his custom. But soon we put him at his ease,
and showed him we were proud of him; and then he made no more to do, but
accepted the best of the sirloin.

CHAPTER XVIII

WITCHERY LEADS TO WITCHCRAFT

Although wellnigh the end of March, the wind blew wild and piercing,
as I went on foot that afternoon to Mother Melldrum's dwelling. It was
safer not to take a horse, lest (if anything vexed her) she should put
a spell upon him; as had been done to Farmer Snowe's stable by the wise
woman of Simonsbath.

The sun was low on the edge of the hills by the time I entered the
valley, for I could not leave home till the cattle were tended, and
the distance was seven miles or more. The shadows of rocks fell far and
deep, and the brown dead fern was fluttering, and brambles with their
sere leaves hanging, swayed their tatters to and fro, with a red look on
them. In patches underneath the crags, a few wild goats were browsing;
then they tossed their horns, and fled, and leaped on ledges, and stared
at me. Moreover, the sound of the sea came up, and went the length of
the valley, and there it lapped on a butt of rocks, and murmured like a
shell.

Taking things one with another, and feeling all the lonesomeness, and
having no stick with me, I was much inclined to go briskly back,
and come at a better season. And when I beheld a tall grey shape, of
something or another, moving at the lower end of the valley, where the
shade was, it gave me such a stroke of fear, after many others, that my
thumb which lay in mother's Bible (bro