THE WITCH’S DOWNFALL 57

about to speak, when the other hastily
interrupted: _

‘ Now, none of your rhymes and nonsense
here, I do hope. Let a poor person alone
for once, now, do/ This is my oak, and
has been for years. I’m a prosy old lady, I
own, so dov’¢ go and throw your verses at
my head—now, don’t /?

The Fairy of the Falls (for such she
evidently was) did not take the slightest
notice of this appeal, but calmly proceeded
to address her enemy in the following words :

‘In the midst of this wood,
We have all understood,
Bad fairies must sometimes reside ;
Whilst quiet they live,
Their life we forgive,
And allow them unharm’d to abide.
But we, the good Fays,
Detest the bad ways
And airs which they sometimes assume,
And the children of men,
If they persecute, then,
They'll find that they tempt their own doom.
Beneath this old oak
We've heard your foul croak,
And borne with you many a year,
But your treatment of folk
Now passes a joke,