y I have some bread and butter?" asked Elsie; but the old
woman shook her head. "I have got neither bread nor butter," she said;
"but think now--a bit of porridge and a drop of milk, and a bit of
honey--how will that do? Jan!" she called out.

The idiot came in grinning at the children, but she shook her finger at
him and made a sign, at which he nodded and went out again. Then she
blew up the fire and added a few sticks to it, and taking oatmeal out
of a sack which lay in one corner, and water from a wooden pitcher,
began to make the porridge. Presently Jan came in again with half a
dozen little trout, ready for cooking, and bending down at another
corner of the fire was soon very busy over them. The porridge was
quickly ready, and though the children had never eaten it before, and
were not accustomed to pewter spoons and wooden bowls, yet the
heather-honey, which was given to them with it, was so delicious that
they found it good enough.

By the time that the porridge was all gone, the fish were cooked and
served up on the two wooden platters with some salt; but now came a
difficulty, for there were nothing but the same two spoons to eat them
with, and it is not easy to eat a trout with a spoon, especially if one
has been brought up not to use one's fingers. But the old woman soon
settled matters by splitting up the fish with a knife and taking out
the bones; after which both spoons were soon hard at work and the fish
disappeared as rapidly as the porridge; for little trout, freshly
caught from a moorland stream, are sweet enough, as all that have eaten
them are aware. Finally the old woman laid before the children a huge
pan full of stewed whorts; and as there were no plates left, nor as
much as a saucer to be produced, they just helped themselves with their
spoons out of the pan and ate as much as they wanted, which, after the
porridge and trout, was not a very great deal.

Then they looked at the idiot, who had taken the squirrel out of his
pocket and was fondling it and purring to it in his own strange way.
He gave it to them also to make friends with, and seeing that they were
fond of animals he went to the door and whistled; and presently there
came trotting up a little hind of a year old, which walked in at the
door as if she had been accustomed to live in a house all her life, and
reared up like a begging dog on her hind legs to eat a bunch of
mountain-ash berries which he held over her head. Then he