nd Jem could see
that she was cooking something very special for him. At last the broth
began to bubble and boil, and she drew off the saucepan and poured its
contents into a silver bowl, which she set before Jem.

'There, my boy,' said she, 'eat this soup and then you'll have
everything which pleased you so much about me. And you shall be a clever
cook too, but the real herb--no, the REAL herb you'll never find. Why
had your mother not got it in her basket?'

The child could not think what she was talking about, but he quite
understood the soup, which tasted most delicious. His mother had often
given him nice things, but nothing had ever seemed so good as this. The
smell of the herbs and spices rose from the bowl, and the soup tasted
both sweet and sharp at the same time, and was very strong. As he was
finishing it the guinea pigs lit some Arabian incense, which gradually
filled the room with clouds of blue vapour. They grew thicker and
thicker and the scent nearly overpowered the boy. He reminded himself
that he must get back to his mother, but whenever he tried to rouse
himself to go he sank back again drowsily, and at last he fell sound
asleep in the corner of the sofa.

Strange dreams came to him. He thought the old woman took off all his
clothes and wrapped him up in a squirrel skin, and that he went about
with the other squirrels and guinea pigs, who were all very pleasant and
well mannered, and waited on the old woman.

First he learned to clean her cocoa-nut shoes with oil and to rub them
up. Then he learnt to catch the little sun moths and rub them through
the finest sieves, and the flour from them he made into soft bread for
the toothless old woman.

In this way he passed from one kind of service to another, spending a
year in each, till in the fourth year he was promoted to the kitchen.
Here he worked his way up from under-scullion to head-pastrycook, and
reached the greatest perfection. He could make all the most difficult
dishes, and two hundred different kinds of patties, soup flavoured
with every sort of herb--he had learnt it all, and learnt it well and
quickly.

When he had lived seven years with the old woman she ordered him one
day, as she was going out, to kill and pluck a chicken, stuff it with
herbs, and have it very nicely roasted by the time she got back. He did
this quite according to rule. He wrung the chicken's neck, plunged it
into boiling water, carefully plucked out all the feathers