twilight of the dawn she saw the old woman crouch down by one of the
alder bushes, and put her tub under it, and go milking with her hands;
and after a bit she lifted her tub, that seemed to have something in it,
and set it over against another alder bush, and went milking with her
hands again. So the girl said, "Mother, mother, wake up, and see what
the neighbour woman is doing!" So the mother looked out, and there, in
the twilight of the dawn, she saw her four cows in the bit of land,
among the alder bushes, and the old neighbour woman milking away at a
bush. And then the old woman moved her tub likewise to another bush, and
likewise, and likewise, until she had milked four bushes, and she took
up her tub, and it seemed awful heavy, and she had her shawl over it,
and was going up the hill.

'So the mother said to the girl, "Run, run, and see what she has got in
it." For they weren't up to the ways of witches, and they were
astonished like. But the girl, she said, "Oh, mother, I don't like."
Well, she was timid, anyway, the eldest girl. But the second girl was a
romping thing, not afraid of anything, so they sent her. By this time
the wicked old woman was high on the hill; so she ran and ran, but she
could not catch her before she was in at her own door; but that second
girl, she was not afraid of anything, so she runs in at the door, too.
Now, in those days they used to have sailing-chests that lock up; they
had iron bars over them, so you could keep anything in that was a
secret. They got them from the ships, and this old woman kept her milk
in hers. So when the girl bounced in at the door, there she saw that
wicked old woman pouring milk out of the tub into her chest, and the
chest half full of milk, and the old man looking on! So then, of course
they knew where the good of their milk had gone.'

The story was finished. The old dame looked at the student and nodded
her head with eyes that awaited some expression of formal disapproval.

'What did they know?' asked he.

'Know! Oh, why, that the old woman was an awful wicked witch, and she'd
taken the good of their milk.'

'Oh, indeed!' said the student; and then, 'But what became of the widow
and the seven daughters?'

'Well, of course she had to sell her cows and get others, and then it
was all right. But that old man and his wife were that selfish they'd
not have cared if she'd starved. And I tell you, it's one of the things
witches can do, to take the good ou