ack while eleven o'clock. He was a good
lad was Amos, and the only one o' the family that favvoured me; the rest
on 'em took after their father. So I sat misen down on a stool and
glowered into the fire, and wrastled wi' the deevil same as Jacob
wrastled wi' the angel. And the whole fire seemed to be full o' lile
deevils that were shooting out their tongues at me; and the sparks were
the souls of the damned i' hell that tried to lowp up the chimley out o'
the deevils' road. But the lile deevils would lowp after 'em, and lap
'em up wi' their tongues o' flame and set 'em i' the fire agean.

"At last I couldn't thole it no longer. Ash-riddling or no ash-riddling,
I said, I'm boun' to bed, and upstairs I went. Well, I lay i' bed happen
three-quarters of an hour, and sure enough, the ticement began to wark
i' my head stronger and stronger. At lang length I crept downstairs
agean i' my stocking feet into the kitchen. All was whisht as the grave,
and the fire was by now nearly out, so that there were no flame-deevils
to freeten me. So I took the riddle that I'd gotten ready afore and
began to riddle the ash all ower the hearthstone. The stone were hot,
but I were cowd as an ice-shackle, and I felt the goose-flesh creeping
all ower my body. When I'd riddled all the ash I made it snod wi' the
peat-rake, and then, more dead nor wick, I crept back into bed and
waited while Mike and Amos came home.

"They got back about eleven, and then I thought, they'll happen see what
I've done. But they didn't, for they'd putten out the lantern in the
stable, and I'd brought the can'le up wi' me into the cham'er. I heerd
'em stumbling about i' the kitchen, and then they came up to bed, and
Mike began talking to me about the lambs i' the croft, and I knew he'd
niver set een on the ash-riddling. He soon fell asleep, and after a
while I dozed off too, and dreamt I were murdering Owd Jerry i' the
staggarth. As soon as cockleet came, I wakkened up and crept downstairs,
quiet-like, so as not to-wakken Mike or the childer. And there on the
hearthstone were the ashes, and reet i' the middle on 'em the prent of a
man's clog.

"It were Jerry's clog as plain as life. When I saw it I went all of a
didder, and thought I sud ha' fainted' for all that I'd dreamt about
murdering Owd Jerry came back into my mind. But I drave a pin into my
arm to rouse misen, and took the besom and swept up the ashes and lit
the fire. After I'd mashed misen a cup o' tea I felt