the maids upon the chairs show ankles, in proof of terror, until, lo!
he hath him pinned fast, never more to stir, or clean his whiskers in
rat-land.

And then all come down, and JAN boasts loudly how he all but trod him
flat, ay, and could have done so had rat not fled in terror of his
boot; and _Trouncer_ returns, smugly purring, and mother rates the
blushing maids.

And I to the fields, having work to do, but liking not the doing.

CHAPTER IV.

Now I with _Rouser_ at my heels went manfully on my way. Gaily I went
over the parched brown wastes where lately the flood had lain heavy
upon the land, past the whispering copses of fir and beech and oak
that top the upland, through the yellowing corn that stands waving
golden promise in the valley, till I came to where the land bends
suddenly with a sharp turn from the eastward whence a pearly brook,
now swollen to a roaring torrent, babbles bravely over the stones.
Sudden I stopped as though a palsy had gripped me, though of the
TIDDLERS, as is well known, none hath ever suffered of a palsy, they
being for the most part a lusty race, and apt for enduring moisture
both within and without. Never till my dying day shall I forget the
sight that met my eyes. For there seated upon a tuffet, her beautiful
blue eyes fixed in horror and despair, her jug of curds and whey
scarce tasted, was my MARIAN, while beside her, lolling at ease with
the slothful stretch of his great limbs, and the flames as of Tophet
in his fierce eyes sat SPIDER, the great black-haired giant SPIDER
that would make a feast of her.