mething you would not like to be, I can tell you."

"I shouldn't quite like to be a black snake," said Derette, after a
minute's pause for reflection. "But I don't think I should much mind
being a pig. Little, tiny pigs are rather pretty things; and when they
lie and grunt, they look very comfortable."

"Silly child!--you'd have no soul to be saved!"

"Shouldn't I? But, Flemild, I don't quite see--if _I_ were the pig--
would that be me or the pig?"

"Hi, there! Where are you going?"

Flemild was not very sorry to be saved the solution of Derette's
difficult problem. She turned to the youth of some fifteen years, who
had hailed her from the corner of Castle Street.

"Where you should have gone instead, Haimet--with the budget for water.
Do go with me now."

"Where on earth are you going--to Osney?"

"No, stupid boy: to Plato's Well."

"I'm not going there. I don't mind Saint Maudlin's, if you like."

"We are out of the way to Saint Maudlin's, or else I shouldn't have
minded--"

"No, my lady, I rather think you wouldn't have minded the chance of a
dance in Horsemonger Street. However, I'm not going to Plato's Well.
If you go with me, you go to Saint Maudlin's; and if you don't, you may
find your way back by yourselves, that's all."

And laying his hands on the budget, Haimet transferred it from his
sister's keeping to his own.

Plato's Well stood in Stockwell Street, on the further side of the
Castle, and on the south of Gloucester Hall, now Worcester College.
Fortified by her brother's presence, Flemild turned after him, and they
went up Castle Street, and along North Bayly Street into Bedford Lane,
now the northern part of New Inn Hall Street. When they reached the
North Gate, they had to wait to go out, for it was just then blocked by
a drove of cattle, each of which had to pay the municipal tax of a
halfpenny, and they were followed by a cart of sea-fish, which paid
fourpence. The gate being clear, they passed through it, Flemild
casting rather longing looks down Horsemonger Street (the modern Broad
Street), where a bevy of young girls were dancing, while their elders
sat at their doors and looked on; but she did not attempt to join them.
A little further, just past the Church of Saint Mary Magdalen, they came
to a small gothic building over a well. Here, for this was Saint
Maudlin's Well, Haimet drew the water, and they set forth on the return
journey.

"Want to go after those damsels?" in