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Rh sat down to prepare dinner while the others went forth to hunt. "There!" said he to himself as he set the pot of stew over the fire, "now may the adventure that befell my companions come also to me, and then I shall see whether or no I have more wit than they to meet it!" For some time there was no sound within or without save the snapping of the fire, but scarcely had the stew begun to boil before Massang's sharp ears caught a little sound of rustling outside the window. He sat quite still, looking and listening. In a few moments there appeared over the edge of the window sill the top of a small ladder, and a thin, sharp voice exclaimed from without:

"Alack-a-day! Alack-a-day! What a steep climb! But methinks I smell a savory stew cooking within!" Up the ladder, over the window sill and into the room climbed a little old woman not more than two feet high, all shriveled and bent,