dozen drawers and building a sloping roof over them; the
joints were warped apart, and through the chinks could be seen
fragments of clean shirt, and ends of lace, and bits of flannel,
suggesting babies. At a wink from the female, the male with the
ponderous boots retired from the presence.

Mrs. Pugh is a woman of medium height and size, with a clear
grey eye, and light hair, and wearing that sycophantic smile
peculiar to people who have much to do with ugly babies whose
beauty must be constantly praised to the doting parents. She was
attired in a neat calico dress, constructed for family use, and
for the particular accommodation of the younger members of the
household.

Johannes, who had been taking a sly look, had made up his mind
that she would not be quite so objectionable for a wife as he had
feared, and he had fully resolved to woo and wed her off-hand,
provided she had the broomstick of his hopes.

So, by way of a beginning, he announced that he would like her to
exercise her magic powers in his behalf.

Mrs. Pugh had evidently previously regarded him as an
enthusiastic young father with a pair of troublesome twins, who
had come to seek her ministrations, and she undoubtedly had high
wages, innumerable presents, and exorbitant perquisites in her
mind's eye at that instant.

When, however, she learned that her visitor merely wished to know
what the fates had resolved to do about his particular case, she
was slightly disappointed, for the babies are more profitable
than the planets. However, she soon reconciled herself to her
fate, and produced from some cranny immediately under the eaves
of the cow-shed bureau, a pack of cards wrapped up in an old
newspaper. She then carefully locked the door to keep out the
children, and drew down the curtains lest their inquiring minds
should lead them to observe her mysterious operations through the
window. Then taking the wonder-working pieces of pasteboard in
her hands, and seating herself opposite her visitor, she
announced her gracious will, thus: "You shall have six wishes."

Then, without asking him what he wished for, or whether he wished
for anything, she shuffled the cards a few seconds, and read off
their mysterious significance as follows, her curious and anxious
customer looking furtively around, meanwhile, to spy out the
hiding-place of the wooden courser:

"'Pears to me you will have good luck in futur, though it seems
to me that you have had a great d