e, after a few doubtful attempts, at length
blew forth a volley of smoke, extending all the way from the obscure
corner into the bar of sunshine. There it eddied and melted away among the
motes of dust. It seemed a convulsive effort; for the two or three next
whiffs were fainter, although the coal still glowed, and threw a gleam
over the scarecrow's visage. The old witch clapt her skinny hands
together, and smiled encouragingly upon her handiwork. She saw that the
charm worked well. The shrivelled, yellow face, which heretofore had been
no face at all, had already a thin, fantastic haze, as it were, of human
likeness, shifting to and fro across it; sometimes vanishing entirely, but
growing more perceptible than ever with the next whiff from the pipe. The
whole figure, in like manner, assumed a show of life, such as we impart to
ill-defined shapes among the clouds, and half-deceive ourselves with the
pastime of our own fancy.

If we must needs pry closely into the matter, it may be doubted whether
there was any real change, after all, in the sordid, worn-out, worthless,
and ill-jointed substance of the scarecrow; but merely a spectral
illusion, and a cunning effect of light and shade, so colored and
contrived as to delude the eyes of most men. The miracles of witchcraft
seem always to have had a very shallow subtlety; and, at least, if the
above explanation do not hit the truth of the process, I can suggest no
better.

"Well puffed, my pretty lad!" still cried old Mother Rigby. "Come, another
good, stout whiff, and let it be with might and main! Puff for thy life, I
tell thee! Puff out of the very bottom of thy heart; if any heart thou
hast, or any bottom to it! Well done, again! Thou didst suck in that
mouthfull as if for the pure love of it."

And then the witch beckoned to the scarecrow, throwing so much magnetic
potency into her gesture, that it seemed as if it must inevitably be
obeyed, like the mystic call of the loadstone, when it summons the iron.

"Why lurkest thou in the corner, lazy one?" said she. "Step forth! Thou
hast the world before thee?"

Upon my word, if the legend were not one which I heard on my grandmother's
knee, and which had established its place among things credible before my
childish judgment could analyze its probability, I question whether I
should have the face to tell it now!

In obedience to Mother Rigby's word, and extending its arm as if to reach
her out-stretched hand, the figure