natural powers, the only remedy against them must be found in the wisdom of the people, who having enjoyed the superior education of the nineteenth century, doubtless understand how to act in all such cases. To the Witch's Glen, then, Willy hurried, and as usual he crept about, looking now among the broken banks, and now in the pools of water, to see if he could either light on a treasure hidden under a large flat stone with a rusty iron ring in it, which he knew he should lift up, and then discover a flight of stone steps, which would lead him into a vault, where he would find the skeleton of a man in armour, with a crown of diamonds on his helmet, and heaps of sovereigns and half sovereigns and bank notes piled up in iron boxes round him; or else what is common in these days, should find a nugget of gold, and a gold mine. When suddenly, to his great delight, at the bottom of one of the deepest pools, he saw something clearly glistening or rather gleaming, looking in fact more like silver than gold. But silver and gold are both precious metals, and though had Willy searched more carefully he would have found that it was only the inside of an oyster shell, which had been

thrown in by an idle boy like himself, still it glistened like silver, and Willy crept down the steep bank, and tried to reach and poke at it with his stick. He poked again and again, catching hold with one hand of the bough of a bush, and with the other straining himself out as far as he could, and at last succeeded, as he thought, in touching it, for his hazel stick was very long, when all at once the bough broke, the sod under his feet gave way, down shot the stone on which he knelt, and head foremost into the deep pool Willy Watkins fell. Down, down he plunged, and as he plunged a dismal sort of music began ringing in his ears, and then bright flashes of light-green, blue, and crimson-darted across his eyes, with a pricking sensation in his eyeballs, and then he saw some beautiful green fields full of cowslips and primroses, which he was beginning to gather, when all at once it became quite dark. Then came on a tremendous storm of thunder and lightning, and poor Willy found himself in the middle of a deep bog. All around him, as he saw by the blue flashes of lightning, was a wild and dismal forest. And when the forked lightning fell, he beheld above him the

bare, jagged, spectre-like skeletons of dead trees with horrible large-eyed owls, and hideous leathernwinged bats, and grinning monkeys among them, with several frightful specimens of gorillas and chimpanzees, sitting and making mouths at him. Then behind him he heard the howling of wolves, the hissing of snakes, the roaring of lions, the screechings of owls, the growling of tigers, and what was worse than all the shrieking of a multitude of railway whistles, or what sounded like them, but which really was a concert of screaming hyenas, who seemed communicating to each other some pleasant tidings, like the arrival of a good meal. In the meanwhile-(you must have understood by this time that Willy had arrived in Witchland, which is the antipodes of Fairyland; but they both agree in one thing, that they differ in many things from England, or indeed any part of Europe)—meanwhile, I say, it rained cats and dogs; and as Willy had no umbrella, it was extremely unpleasant to find these animals (to be sure the drops were not so big as usual, only kittens and puppy dogs) lighting upon his head and crawling down over him. There were also drops

of common rain as big as moderate sized pumpkins, which splashed over him like buckets of water over a dirty carriage. And the wind was so sharp that had he not held his nose fast by both hands it must have been cut off, and indeed in one piercing blast he received such a gash upon his cheek that the blood ran trickling down to the ground. He hoped indeed at one time to find shelter under a great yew tree which grew near, but on attempting to move his knickerbockers, in which graceful and classical attire his fond mother delighted to array him after the model of a Cochin China fowl, he sunk deeper in the mud, and fell upon his face in a puddle. Whether he could have struggled out by himself we now unhappily shall never know, for while he was making the effort, but without success, his fright was still more increased by feeling a strong bony sinewy hand, or rather claw, catch him by the neck, and a hoarse, asthmatic but dreadful voice cry or rather grunt out with a chuckle of delight, 'I thought I should have him at last. And so this is Master Willy Watkins who comes up the Witch's Glen looking for a gold mine, and so finds his way into the Witch's Forest without leave or license.'

13

CHAPTER II.

WILLY WATKINS IS SEIZED BY THE WITCH, AND HOW THE COCK ROBIN SEES HIM.

For

THE Witch, you will observe, had a tender conscience, and added the last words to make herself believe that Willy was guilty of a trespass. without some guilt or other, either real or imaginary, she confessed it would be wrong to eat him up.

I point this out, my boys, because it shows that even Witches have a conscience, and wish to keep up appearances and do right as men, for men also, before they abuse or injure another, always try to prove that he has been doing something wrongthat he is always tying his shoe, as the angry man who had lost all his money and his temper at the gaming table exclaimed against the passenger in the street, who was engaged for a moment in this operation, and whom for this offence the angry man kicked into the area; and as the wolf charged the