Witch into a corner of the
kitchen.

"Lift up the floor
And open door,"

bawled out the old Witch, tapping the floor with her broomstick.

Immediately a square piece of the floor slid away, revealing a long
flight of black steps.

"Follow me," said the old Witch again.

She went on down the steps and Jill followed, dragging the bag after
her.

The steps were very dark and winding, but at last they reached the
bottom. Jill found herself in a huge vault.

She first of all thought the vault was empty, but when her eyes grew
accustomed to the darkness, she saw that it was filled with rows and
rows of empty casks. Though the casks were empty, yet each one had a
label. Jill strained her eyes to read some of the labels in the dim
light. "Showers," "Dew," "Drinking-water!"

"What extraordinary labels!" she said to herself, and went on to the
next row. "Taps," "Washing-water," "Streams," "Rivers," "Mists,"
"Frosts." One very large one was labelled "Thunder-storms." The next
one to it, "Raindrops, Special, extra loud patterers." The next one,
"Steam reserved for Boats, second best quality only." Rows upon rows
of them, all empty, and all labelled with these curious labels!

"Bring the bag here," said the old Witch, pointing to a cask labelled
"Spring Showers. Pure Refreshers."

Jill lifted up the bag and untied the string. The water went pattering
into the cask. When the bag was empty, and the cask was full, a lid
slid on to the cask by itself. Then the old Witch touched one of the
walls, and another door flew open, leading to a second and much smaller
vault. This vault was full of elastic bags like the one Jill had
carried up the hill.

"Take as many of these as you can carry," said the old Witch.

So Jill picked up as many as she could carry, and they went back the
way they had come.

When they reached the kitchen again the old Witch called out:

"Shut down the floor
And close the door,"

and the floor closed up again.

"I am going out now," said the old Witch. "I shall not be back till
to-morrow at dusk. I shall lock the door so that you cannot get out.
Clean the place and have supper ready for me when I come back."

She took her broomstick. Then, slinging all the empty bags across it,
and balancing the cat on the other end, she mounted it astride.

"Abracadabra!" shouted she.

The broomstick rose up in the air and swirled through the window, which
shut down after her with a