1v.] THE WITCHES’ ISLAND. 195

 

So I thought, as you have always been friendly with
us sandpipers, I would do you a good turn and come
off and tell you at once.’

‘Thank you kindly, birdie) said the grateful wo-
man ; ‘ thank you kindly for your good news. I know
the mound and the thorn-tree too, and I will certainly
go there the very first thing to-morrow morning.
But if my man is really the slave of them wretched
creatures, I’m sure I don’t know what ever I can'do
for to get him back again.’

‘Leave that to the Rabbit!’ cried the Sandpiper.
“And now, as I have done my errand, please to let
me out of the window again, and if you will take my
advice, you will forthwith go quietly to bed,’

Molly, being a sensible woman, saw the wisdom of
this advice at once; she therefore first opened the
window and let her little visitor depart, and then,
feeling very tired, and knowing that she could do no
more that night, turned into bed with as little delay
as possible. There can be little doubt that she
dreamed of witches, turbots, rabbits, and sandpipers
during the night, but truth compels me to declare
that, whether troubled.by dreams or not, she managed
to sleep until the sun had lighted up the sky with
his morning beams, and all nature was again astir.
The wind had lulled in the night, the waves had
ceased to roar, and broke“ peacefully upon the shore,
as if they wished to make friends with it and apolo-
gise for having dashed against it with such vehemence
on the previous night. In short, it was one of those
glorious mornings upon which everything looks its

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