trong hand and lifted up Pannell's kitten,
which had sprung upon the forge and was about to set its little paws on
the hot cinders.

"Poor pussy!" he said, standing it in one hand and stroking it with the
other. "You mustn't burn those little paws and singe that coat. Is
this the one that had the mouse, Cob?"

Just as I answered, "Yes," I saw the great smith change his aspect, pick
up the still hot hand-bill that Uncle Jack had forged, stare hard at it
on both sides, and then, throwing it down, he seized the pincers in one
hand, the forge shovel in the other, turned on the blast and made the
fire glow, and at last whisked out a piece of white-hot steel.

This he in turn banged down on the anvil--_stithy_ he called it--and
beat into shape.

It was not done so skilfully as Uncle Jack had forged his, but the work
was good and quick, and when he had done, the man cooled it and held it
out with all the rough independence of the north-countryman.

"Suppose that may do, mester," he said, and he stared at where Uncle
Jack still stroked the kitten, which made a platform of his broad palm,
and purred and rubbed itself against his chest.

"Capitally!" said Uncle Jack, setting down the kitten gently. "Yes; I
wouldn't wish to see better work."

"Aw raight!" said Pannell; and he went on with his work, while Uncle
Jack and I walked across the yard to the office.

"We shall get all right with the men by degrees, Cob," he said. "That
fellow was going to be nasty, but he smoothed himself down. You see now
the use of a master being able to show his men how to handle their
tools."

"Yes," I said, laughing; "but that was not all. Pannell would have gone
if it had not been for one thing."

"What was that?" he said.

"You began petting his kitten, and that made him friends."

I often used to go into the smithy when Pannell was at work after that,
and now and then handled his tools, and he showed me how to use them
more skilfully, so that we were pretty good friends, and he never
treated me as if I were a spy.

The greater part of the other men did, and no matter how civil I was
they showed their dislike by having accidents as they called them, and
these accidents always happened when I was standing by and at no other
time.

For instance a lot of water would be splashed, so that some fell upon
me; a jet of sparks from a grindstone would flash out in my face as I
went past; the band of a stone would be loosened, so that