re
they adders or vipers? I don't very much mind which, but on the whole I
prefer vipers."

The old dame watched him breathlessly while he arranged his bed, and
in every way betrayed his firm resolution to spend the night in her
cottage.

All at once an excited buzzing could be heard outside the closed window,
and a huge hornet bumped against the glass.

"Let the poor thing come in," said the pilot, opening the window.

"No, no, not that one, kill it!" yelled the old dame.

"Why should I? Perhaps its young ones are in this room, and would
starve. Am I to lie here and listen to the screaming of hungry babies?
No, thank you! Come in, little wasp!"

"It will sting you!" shrieked the old dame.

"No, indeed it won't. It only stings the wicked."

The window was open now. A big hornet, as large as a pigeon's egg, flew
in; buzzing like a bass string, it flew at once to the nest. And then it
was still.

The old dame left the attic, and the pilot got between the sheets.

When he came downstairs into the parlour on the following morning, the
old dame was not there. A black cat sat on the only chair and purred;
cats have been condemned to purr, because they are such lazy beasts, and
they must do something.

"Get up, pussy," said the pilot, "and let me sit down."

And he took the cat and put it on the hearth. But it was no ordinary
cat, for immediately sparks began to fly from its fur, and the chips
caught file.

"If you can light a fire, you can make me some coffee," said the pilot.

But the cat is so constituted that it never wants to do what it is told,
and so it began at once to swear and spit until the fire was out.

In the meantime the pilot had heard somebody leaning a spade against the
wall of the cottage. He looked out of the window and saw the old dame
standing in a pit which she had dug in the garden.

"I see you are digging a grave for me, old woman," he said.

The old dame came in. When she saw Victor safe and sound, she was beside
herself with amazement; she confessed that up to now nobody had ever
left the attic alive, and that therefore she had dug his grave in
anticipation.

She was a little short-sighted, but it seemed to her that the pilot was
wearing a strange handkerchief round his neck.

"Ha ha! Have you ever seen such a handkerchief in all your life?"
laughed Victor, putting his hand up to his throat.

Wound round his neck was a snake which had tied itself in front into a
knot with tw