Anna had been so busy examining some little three-cornered Cape of Good
Hope stamps, that she had not till now clearly comprehended what Willie
was speaking about.

"You throw stones at Mountain Moggy!" she said in an incredulous tone.

"Of course we do, and awful fun we had this very evening," answered
William, boldly. "We heard them go in at the window and thump against
the old witch. The clock struck, and we had to run away, or we should
have given her more of it. But it was just as well that we were off,
for some of the fellows saw her lighting up her house for her
witcheries, and there's no doubt but that she'd have sent down some of
her imps after us if we hadn't made good use of our legs to get off."

"What do you really mean, Willie?" said Anna, now quite interested.
"You cannot tell me that you have been stoning that poor miserable old
woman on the mountain?"

"Haven't we though," said Willie, carelessly, crossing his arms on the
table and beginning to pore over his book.

"Willie says that she's a wicked black witch, with red eyes and a blue
tongue," remarked little Mabel.

"Don't stuff the little ones' heads with such abominable nonsense,
Will," said Charles, looking up from his book. "There's nothing I hate
to hear so much; it's wrong, and you have no business to do it."

"No, indeed; it's very wrong to tell stories about her, even in fun,"
remarked Anna.

"Nonsense and stories, indeed!" cried Willie, indignantly. "They are
neither one nor the other. If she isn't black she's near it; and I
never said she had red eyes and a blue tongue; but if you two were to
hear her screech and howl, as I have, you'd confess fast enough that she
was a witch." And Willie turned back to his book with the air of an
injured person.

Poor boy, he had not had the advantages of his brothers and sisters,
though worldly people would have said that his prospects were far better
than theirs. They had been carefully trained in the way they should
walk from their earliest days by their parents, who, though not
possessed of worldly wealth, felt that they might yet give them the
richest of heritages. William had not, like the others, been brought up
entirely by his parents. His godmother, Miss Ap Reece, had offered to
leave him her property, provided she might have entire charge of him,
and his parents somewhat hastily consented. By her he had been well fed
and well clothed, but not well educated. She was capricious,