ay with him.

When he had walked for some time he came to a great wood, and it
stretched before him all day long as he went on, and when night began to
fall he saw a great light, and went towards it. After a long, long time
he came to a small hut at the foot of a rock, outside which an old woman
was standing drawing water up from a well with her nose, it was so long.

'Good-evening, mother,' said the man.

'Good-evening to you too,' said the old woman. 'No one has called me
mother this hundred years.'

'Can I lodge here to-night?' said the man.

'No,' said the old woman. But the man took out his roll of tobacco,
lighted a little of it, and then gave her a whiff. Then she was so
delighted that she began to dance, and thus the man got leave to
stay the night there. It was not long before he asked about Farmer
Weatherbeard.

She said that she knew nothing about him, but that she ruled over all
the four-footed beasts, and some of them might know him. So she gathered
them all together by blowing a whistle which she had, and questioned
them, but there was not one of them which knew anything about Farmer
Weatherbeard.

'Well,' said the old woman, 'there are three of us sisters; it may be
that one of the other two knows where he is to be found. You shall have
the loan of my horse and carriage, and then you will get there by night;
but her house is three hundred miles off, go the nearest way you will.'

The man set out and got there at night. When he arrived, this old woman
also was standing drawing water out of the well with her nose.

'Good-evening, mother,' said the man.

'Good-evening to you,' said the old woman. 'No one has ever called me
mother this hundred years.'

'Can I lodge here to-night?' said the man.

'No,' said the old woman.

Then he took out the roll of tobacco, took a whiff, and gave the old
woman some snuff on the back of her hand. Then she was so delighted that
she began to dance, and the man got leave to stay all night. It was not
long before he began to ask about Farmer Weatherbeard.

She knew nothing about him, but she ruled over all the fishes, she said,
and perhaps some of them might know something. So she gathered them all
together by blowing a whistle which she had, and questioned them, but
there was not one of them which knew anything about Farmer Weatherbeard.

'Well,' said the old woman, 'I have another sister; perhaps she may know
something about him. She lives six hundred miles o