did she pin the sprig of dill and the verse over the door again. She
kept them at the very bottom of a little satin-wood box--the faded
sprig of dill wrapped round with the bit of paper on which was written
the charm-verse:

"Alva, aden, winira mir,
Villawissen lingen;
Sanchta, wanchta, attazir,
Hor de mussen wingen."

[Illustration: THEY FAIRLY DANCED AND FLOURISHED THEIR HEELS.]






THE SILVER HEN.


Dame Dorothea Penny kept a private school. It was quite a small
school, on account of the small size of her house. She had only twelve
scholars and they filled it quite full; indeed one very little boy had
to sit in the brick oven. On this account Dame Penny was obliged to do
all her cooking on a Saturday when school did not keep; on that day
she baked bread, and cakes, and pies enough to last a week. The oven
was a very large one.

It was on a Saturday that Dame Penny first missed her silver hen. She
owned a wonderful silver hen, whose feathers looked exactly as if they