y, though in most respects a true Welshwoman, is free from the
ignorant superstition which forms so sad an ingredient in the character
of the uneducated peasants of these mountain districts, and was grieved
when she found that poor Old Moggy had become the victim of the gross
superstition of her neighbours, by whom she is reputed to be a witch who
has flown across the sea from distant parts for the purpose of taking
possession of the wretched hovel on the mountain. `I do think, sir,'
said Jenny, `if the poor creature had had the power of flying, she'd
have flown to a better sort of a place than this poor shed, scarcely fit
to shelter a gipsy's donkey from a snow-storm. When once the mind
strays away from the truth, it's impossible to say what follies it won't
believe. People don't seem to see the foolishness and nonsense of their
own stones. If they'd seen her, as I have, in her right mind, they'd
know that a friend of the Evil One couldn't talk as she talks; and as
for flying, poor old creature! she can scarcely drag one foot after the
other,' Jenny Davis is a thoughtful and sensible woman, though her
exterior is somewhat rough," observed the Doctor, who was evidently
unwilling, sooner than he could, to repeat the story he had heard. He
continued, however: "Jenny gave little heed to these foolish stories,
till one day one of her boys came from playing on the mountain-side,
with a scared look, and almost breathless, saying that the witch had run
after him, shrieking out, and uttering the most dreadful threats. On
cross-questioning the child, she found that he did not actually see
Moggy running after him, but that his companions said she was, while the
shrieks and cries were the result of his imagination. She determined,
however, to go and see the old woman herself. Being a woman of action,
she immediately set off. When she got near the hovel she found a number
of boys yelling, hooting, and throwing stones at it. On her demanding
why they did so, they said that the old witch was within, and had done
them all some mischief. She had stolen the ducks of the mother of one
of them, had milked the cows of a second, and a third declared that she
had prevented the butter from coming in his mother's churn. One urchin
asserted that his father's horse had died in consequence of her
incantations, and another, that she had given his younger brother the
croup; indeed, every one had some sort of complaint to make, and
vehemen