Away on the margin of the flats we saw the steeples of churches, and
between us and them a small black object came flitting like a jumping
beetle. We sat and watched it, and it turned into a man, who overcame the
black ditches, and picked his way from tussock to tussock, by means of a
long pole, which brought him to us at length in a series of flying leaps.

"Blight him! Blight him! Blight him!" he said as he landed. "So you are
awake at last."

"Awake and hungry," I said.

He loosed a bundle from his back and opened it, and showed us bread and
bacon.

"Blight him! Eat!" he said, and we needed no second bidding.

"You are from the cage?" he asked as he sat and watched us.

I nodded.

"All the birds that come my way I feed," he said. "For once I was caged
myself. Blight him!"

"Whom do you blight?" I asked.

"Whom?" he cried angrily, and turned a suspicious eye on me. "The Hanover
rat,--George!... And the blight works--oh, it works, and the brain rots in
his head and the maggots gnaw at his heart. And they wonder why!... an
effectual fervent curse!--Oh, it works! For years and years I've cursed him