ther, being very poor, frequently
went out a chareing, and left him a whole day together. The neighbours,
out of curiosity, have often looked in at the window, to see how he
behaved while alone; which, whenever they did, they were sure to find
him laughing, and in the utmost delight. This made them judge that he
was not without company, more pleasing to him than any mortals could be;
and what made this conjecture seem the more reasonable, was, that if he
were left ever so dirty, the woman, at her return, saw him with a clean
face, and his hair combed with the utmost exactness and nicety." P. 128.

Waldron gives another account of a poor woman, to whose offspring, it
would seem, the Fairies had taken a special fancy. A few nights after
she was delivered of her first child, the family were alarmed by a
dreadful cry of "Fire!" All flew to the door, while the mother lay
trembling in bed, unable to protect her infant, which was snatched from
the bed by an invisible hand. Fortunately the return of the gossips,
after the causeless alarm, disturbed the Fairies, who dropped the child,
which was found sprawling and shrieking upon the threshold. At the good
woman's second _accouchement_, a tumult was heard in the cow-house,
which drew thither the whole assistants. They returned, when they found
that all was quiet among the cattle, and lo! the second child had been
carried from the bed, and dropped in the middle of the lane. But, upon
the third occurrence of the same kind, the company were again decoyed
out of the sick woman's chamber by a false alarm, leaving only a nurse,
who was detained by the bonds of sleep. On this last occasion, the
mother plainly saw her child removed, though the means were invisible.
She screamed for assistance to the nurse; but the old lady had partaken
too deeply of the cordials which circulate on such joyful occasions, to
be easily awakened. In short, the child was this time fairly carried
off, and a withered, deformed creature, left in its stead, quite naked,
with the clothes of the abstracted infant, rolled in a bundle, by its
side. This creature lived nine years, ate nothing but a few herbs,
and neither spoke, stood, walked nor performed any other functions
of mortality; resembling, in all respects, the changeling already
mentioned.--WALDRON'S _Works, ibid._

But the power of the Fairies was not confined to unchristened children
alone; it was supposed frequently to extend to full grown persons,
espe