1V.] THE WITCHES’ ISLAND. 21g

 

probable that they would make these tempting and
flattering proposals to one who had, unasked and in
spite of opposition, invaded their island and penetrated
the woods from which trespassers were so carefully
warned. So the effect of the song was to make Molly
more determined than ever to persevere, and not to
lose heart in her attempt to recover her lost John.

Had she been a better-educated woman, she would
' probably have replied to the songster of the oak after
the same fashion in which she had been addressed,
and perhaps have stung him or her with terse and
epigrammatic verse, so that matters might have been
brought to a crisis without further delay. But Molly
lived in days when the advantages of a high educa-
tion for the working classes had not been fully appre-
ciated. She could read and write and knew enough
of sums to be able to manage her husband’s accounts
‘to his and her satisfaction. Moreover she could do
plain cooking, roast a bird or joint, broil or fry a fish,
and make a pudding against any fisherman’s wife in
the neighbourhood. And, in those dull times, these
‘practical accomplishments were thought sufficient for
persons in Molly’s station in life and they rarely
aspired beyond them.

So she made no attempt to answer in rhyme, nor
did it once enter her head to undertake such a task,
in which, if she had done so, she would undoubtedly
have failed. She merely waited until the song was
finished and then marched calmly on, brushing past
‘the oak as if nobody was there, or, at all events,
nobody whom it concerned her to notice. She had
not gone many steps farther, when an enormous