e ploughboys were sent back
to the plough.

Everybody lived in fear of Bony in those days, especially the naughty
children, who were kept in order during the day by threats of "Bony
shall have you," and who had nightmares about him in the dark. They
thought he was an Ogre in a cocked hat. The Gray Goose thought he was a
Fox, and that all the men of England were going out in red coats to hunt
him. It was no use to argue the point; for she had a very small head,
and when one idea got into it there was no room for another.

Besides, the Gray Goose never saw Bony, nor did the children, which
rather spoilt the terror of him, so that the Black Captain became more
effective as a Bogy with hardened offenders. The Gray Goose remembered
_his_ coming to the place perfectly. What he came for she did not
pretend to know. It was all part and parcel of the war and bad times. He
was called the Black Captain, partly because of himself and partly
because of his wonderful black mare. Strange stories were afloat of how
far and how fast that mare could go when her master's hand was on her
mane and he whispered in her ear. Indeed, some people thought we might
reckon ourselves very lucky if we were not out of the frying-pan into
the fire, and had not got a certain well-known Gentleman of the Road to
protect us against the French. But that, of course, made him none the
less useful to the Johnsons' Nurse when the little Miss Johnsons were
naughty.

"You leave off crying this minnit, Miss Jane, or I'll give you right
away to that horrid wicked officer. Jemima! just look out o' the windy,
if you please, and see if the Black Cap'n's a-coming with his horse to
carry away Miss Jane."

And there, sure enough, the Black Captain strode by, with his sword
clattering as if it did not know whose head to cut off first. But he did
not call for Miss Jane that time. He went on to the Green, where he came
so suddenly upon the eldest Master Johnson, sitting in a puddle on
purpose, in his new nankeen skeleton suit, that the young gentleman
thought judgment had overtaken him at last, and abandoned himself to the
howlings of despair. His howls were redoubled when he was clutched from
behind and swung over the Black Captain's shoulder; but in five minutes
his tears were stanched, and he was playing with the officer's
accoutrements. All of which the Gray Goose saw with her own eyes, and
heard afterwards that that bad boy had been whining to go back to the
Black