Iv.] THE WITCHES’ ISLAND. 21r

 

‘No, thank you, Ma’am,’ replied Molly with a re-
spectful curtsey ; ‘I be come upon business and aint:
got no time to go pleasure-seeking,’

‘Oh! but you really must come) cried the
second, advancing a step nearer; ‘and if you should
like the place well enough to live with us, it so hap-
pens that we are in want of a cheerful companion,
and might very likely engage youif we could come to
terms.’

‘Ay, observed the third, ‘and you shall be
dressed in fine clothes as we are, and live in clover
-and have everything of the best.’

As they spoke, the three ladies all looked eagerly
upon Molly, and she felt a kind of curious sensation
as she remarked the strange, weird brightness of their
eyes, and a certain wistful expression of pain which
seemed to be stamped upon the countenance of each.
I will not say that the vision of fine clothes and good
victuals, without toil or trouble to obtain either, might
not have had some momentary attraction for the
fisherman’s wife. But the thought of her John,
stolen or charmed from her, and of the dangers of
the place in which she was, was instantly present
with her. -So she boldly relinquished any latent
inclination she might have had to entertain the pro-
posal made to‘her, and with a firm and bold voice
replied: ‘No, I thank you, ladies, I be come here
for my John: Goodchild by name and fisherman by
trade, and if I get him back I don’t care for none 0’
them things you talk of’

Upon this all three of those she addressed cried

out with one volte. ‘Oh the brazen-faced hussey !’ said-
P2