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 An Evening in the Squire's Kitchen. 255 " How do you know that, Mary ? " asked the squire's wife. " Did youseehim?" " See him ? yes, of course ; I've seen him, sure enough," answered Mary. " Oh, tell us, tell us all about it," shouted the boys. " Well, yes ! I can do that," said the dairymaid and began : " When I was in service at the captain's I told you of, the stable boy said to me one Saturday night : " ' If you'll fodder the horses for me to-night, Mary, Fil do you a good turn some day..' " ' All right,' said I, ' I*ll do that for you,' for he was going to see his sweetheart, you know. " So towards evening when the horses should have their fodder, and I had given it to a couple of them, I took an armful of hay to gi ve to the captain's own horse, — he was always so fat and glossy, you could almostr see yourself in his shiny coat, — but just as I was going into the box to him, he fell right into my arms " " Who, who ? the horse ? " asked the boys. " No, of course not ! It was the brownie ; I got so frightened, that I dropped the hay on the spot and ran away as fast as I could. When Peter, the lad, came home, I said to him : ' I have foddered the horses for you once, my dear Peter, but believe me, I sha'n't do it again. The captain's horse didn't get as much as a straw, he d'idn't ! ' and so I told him all about it. "'Ah, that didn't matter a bit,' said Peter, 'the captain's horse has got some one that looks after him anyhow, he has ! ' " " What did the brownie look like, Mary?" asked one of the boys. " Well, you see, I didn't see him exactly ! " she said, "it was so dark I couldn't see a hand before me, but I felt him as plainly as now, when I touch you ; he was hairy, and didn't his eyes glisten ? " " Oh, it was only a eat ! " objected another of the boys. " Cat ? " said Mary with the greatest contempt, " why, I felt every one of his fingers ; he had only four, and they were hairy all over! T f that wasn't the brownie, may I never leave this spot alive ! "