when she first saw me, but I
pretended to pay no attention to her. I just rocked backwards and
forwards, and cried that I couldn't get the black mud off of my shoe.
The old woman sat down and pulled off her stockings, and began to wash
them. When she had finished one, she threw it behind her on the grass
to dry. Being wet and heavy it fell farther from her hand than she
intended. It fell close to me, and I picked it up and stuffed it in my
pocket."

"What for?" asked Buster John bluntly.

"Well, I hardly know," replied Chickamy Crany Crow, somewhat
embarrassed at the suddenness of the question. "I wanted to get even
with her for stealing my fat chicken. I hardly knew what I was doing,
and I certainly didn't know how it would turn out. Well, I stuffed the
old woman's wet stocking in my pocket, and kept on crying out that I
didn't know how to get the black mud off of my shoe.

"'Do as I do,' said the old woman. Then I went and sat on the grass in
front of her, and washed the mud from my shoe.

"For the first time I saw what a horrible-looking creature the old
woman was. Her eyes were sunk in her head, her nose was hooked over
her mouth, and she had two long upper teeth that hung lower than her
under lip. I says to myself, 'Well, old lady, if you are not a witch,
there never was one.' She washed her stocking, mumbling and chewing,
and when she had finished she threw it behind her, and sat hugging her
knees, and glaring at me in a way that made my flesh crawl.

"'What is your name?' says she.

"'Chickamy Crany Crow,' says I.

"'What are you doing here?' says she.

"Says I, 'I went to the well to wash my toe, but when I came back my
chicken was gone.'

"Then the old woman began to laugh like a cackling hen, and she
laughed so loud and laughed so long that it scared me. I got up and
pretended to be going home, but when I had gone a little way I hid
behind a big tree, and watched the old woman's antics. She kept on
laughing for some time, and then she reached out for her stockings.
She found the only one she had left, and put it on. Then she reached
around for the other, but failed to find it, because I had it in my
pocket. This seemed to puzzle her. She stood up and looked all around
for her missing stocking, but it wasn't there. Then she sat down
again, pulled off the stocking she had on, and put it on the other
foot.

"But she still lacked a stocking. This seemed to puzzle the old witch
worse than ever. Once