wisps of hair straggled out from beneath her poke bonnet. Her
eyes were like two snakes, and when she opened her mouth to speak she
showed her long pointed iron teeth. She was dressed in a black cloak,
from which protruded her long skinny arms and claw-like hands. She
carried a broom-stick, and behind her slunk her cat, all draggled with
the wet, and mewing frightfully. She sat down on the chair Jill
offered her.

"Thank you, my dear," she said, in a voice so harsh and grating that it
sounded like a saw scraping over a stone.

"Surely you wouldn't grudge a poor old woman a rest on the way up to
her cottage." This with a leering grin at Jack, who was obviously
disconcerted at her presence.

Jack tried to make some polite reply, and then there was a long
silence, only broken by the pat, pat patter of the raindrops against
the window-pane.

"Now I wonder what you two were talking about so nicely when I came
in?" said the old Witch at last.

"We were talking about the rain," said Jill.

"Yes," blurted out Jack, "we were saying, at least I was, that I hated
the rain. You see, we can't go out when it is raining, and to-morrow
everything will be wet, and we shan't be allowed to walk on the grass,
and there won't be any cricket for days. Oh, I wish----"

"Ye-es," drawled out the old Witch. "I thought so. You wish that
there was not any rain at all."

"Why, yes," said Jack.

"Would you like that too, my pretty dear?" said the old Witch, turning
to Jill.

"Yes," said Jill.

"Very well," said the old Witch. "Ve-ry well! Let us make a bargain
together. If you, my little dear, (turning to Jill) will come and
serve me for a year and a day, I'll manage this rain business for you,"
and she scraped her iron teeth together and smiled more horribly than
ever.

"May I not come and serve you, too?" said Jack.

"Dear me, no!" said the old Witch, bringing her lips together with a
smack. "I don't want any boys about the place. Besides, you'll be
able to enjoy some of the fine weather first, and can tell your sister
how delightful it is when she comes back," and she winked at the cat,
who winked one of his green eyes back at her.

"Is it a bar-gain?" drawled the old Witch.

"Yes," said Jack and Jill together.

Then the old Witch drew from her under cloak, a long thin bag made of
elastic. This she opened, and hung out of the window.

The rain poured in. When the bag was quite full she whipped a piece of
st