on of my
wife's mother, I can think of no person whose society is less desirable.
But one day in each year she takes a day off, during which she is as
affable and benevolent an old dame as you can possibly imagine; really,
you would never know it was the same person. These annual breathing
spells do her a world of good, she tells me; for incessant wickedness is
just as monotonous and wearisome as unbroken goodness."

"And to-day is the Witch's holiday?"

"Yes, it so happens; and I always make it a point to spend the night at
her cottage if I am in this part of the country."

The Knight of the Dusty Thoroughfare rose and put his cloak about his
shoulders, and with the Boy set forward through the valley.

IV.

Presently they came to the Witch's cottage, snuggled away in a hollow
and hidden from the road by a tangle of witch hazel shrubs. The Boy
rather expected a dark, forbidding hut of sinister outlines, but here
was as pretty a cabin as ever you saw, weathered a pleasing gray, with
green blinds and a tiny porch overrun with Virginia-creeper.

The Knight strode boldly up the path, the Boy following less
confidently. No one answering the summons at the porch, they tried the
kitchen door. It was open, and they stepped inside. The Witch was not at
home, but evidently she was not far away, for a fire was crackling in
the stove and a kettle singing over the flames. An enormous black cat
got up lazily from the hearth and rubbed himself against the visitors
with a purr like a small dynamo.

With the familiarity of a relative the Knight led the way about the
house. One door was locked. "This," said he, "is Aunt Jo's dark room, in
which she develops her deviltry. This"--opening the door of a little
shed--"is the garage."

The Boy peeped in and saw two autobroomsticks.

"The small green one is her runabout. The big red one is a touring
broomstick, high power and very fast; you can hear her coming a mile
off."

They returned to the sitting room, and the Boy became greatly taken with
Aunt Jo's collection of books. Some of these were: "One Hundred and One
Best Broths," "Witchcraft Self-Taught," "The Black Art--Berlitz Method,"
and "Burbank's Complete Wizard." The Boy took down the "Complete
Wizard," but he was not able to do more than glance at the absorbing
contents before the clicking of the gate announced that the Witch had
returned.

Aunt Jo was a sprightly dame of more than seventy years, very thin, but
straight