id took them up in her
arms.

"You ought to have beaten the Brownie, if you could catch him," said
she, in a whisper. "He will do it again and again, you'll see, for he
can't bear an untidy kitchen. You'd better do as poor old Cook did, and
clear the supper things away, and put the odds and ends safe in the
larder; also," she added, mysteriously, "if I were you, I'd put a bowl
of milk behind the coal-cellar door."

"Nonsense!" answered the young Cook, and flounced away. But afterward
she thought better of it, and did as she was advised, grumbling all the
time, but doing it.

Next morning the milk was gone! Perhaps Brownie had drunk it up, anyhow
nobody could say that he hadn't. As for the supper, Cook having safely
laid it on the shelves of the larder, nobody touched it. And the
table-cloth, which was wrapped up tidily and put in the dresser drawer,
came out as clean as ever, with not a single black footmark upon it. No
mischief being done, the cat and the dog both escaped beating, and
Brownie played no more tricks with any body--till the next time.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

ADVENTURE THE SECOND

BROWNIE AND THE CHERRY-TREE

THE "next time" was quick in coming, which was not wonderful,
considering there was a Brownie in the house. Otherwise the house was
like most other houses, and the family like most other families. The
children also: they were sometimes good, sometimes naughty, like other
children; but, on the whole, they deserved to have the pleasure of a
Brownie to play with them, as they declared he did--many and many a
time.

A favorite play-place was the orchard, where grew the biggest
cherry-tree you ever saw. They called it their "castle," because it rose
up ten feet from the ground in one thick stem, and then branched out
into a circle of boughs, with a flat place in the middle, where two or
three children could sit at once. There they often did sit, turn by
turn, or one at a time--sometimes with a book, reading; and the biggest
boy made a sort of rope-ladder by which they could climb up and
down--which they did all winter, and enjoyed their "castle" very much.

But one day in spring they found their ladder cut away! The Gardener
had done it, saying it injured the tree, which was just coming into
blossom. Now this Gardener was a rather gruff man, with a growling
voice. He did not mean to be unkind, but he disliked children; he said
they bothered him. But when they complained to th