Page:Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845).djvu/248

 or, on the other hand, as a sorceress, laying a snare for her. It was obvious there was magic in the business; the cautious widow, therefore, while intent upon quitting her present abode, was anxious to avoid taking any step that might be offensive to an invisible power which seemed disposed to favour her. She was long undecided whether to take the miraculous hen with her, or to set it at liberty. The eggs the old lady had permitted her to appropriate; and in three days she had become possessed of three large lumps of gold. The question was, whether, if she took the hen, it would be deemed a theft; or whether she might not lawfully adopt it as an understood supplement to the old lady’s donation. After a protracted dispute between her wishes and her scruples, the latter, as usual, gave way; and having adjudicated the hen to be clearly her property, she put it safely in a small coop she found, and wrapping her child in her apron, and tying it to her back gipsy fashion, she quitted the lonely cottage, in which no living thing now remained but a solitary cricket that was chirping in the fireplace.

The wanderer directed her steps towards the village where the old lady had said she was going to buy bread, expecting every moment that she would appear and demand her hen. Within an hour she reached a well-frequented road that led