for you? Ay, and more than that she will do. If I were to whistle,
by-and-by, in the tone that tells my danger, she would break this
stable-door down, and rush into the room to me. Nothing will keep her
from me then, stone-wall or church-tower. Ah, Winnie, Winnie, you little
witch, we shall die together.'

Then he turned away with a joke, and began to feed her nicely, for she
was very dainty. Not a husk of oat would she touch that had been under
the breath of another horse, however hungry she might be. And with her
oats he mixed some powder, fetching it from his saddle-bags. What this
was I could not guess, neither would he tell me, but laughed and called
it 'star-shavings.' He watched her eat every morsel of it, with two or
three drinks of pure water, ministered between whiles; and then he made
her bed in a form I had never seen before, and so we said 'Good-night'
to her.

Afterwards by the fireside he kept us very merry, sitting in the great
chimney-corner, and making us play games with him. And all the while he
was smoking tobacco in a manner I never had seen before, not using any
pipe for it, but having it rolled in little sticks about as long as my
finger, blunt at one end and sharp at the other. The sharp end he would
put in his mouth, and lay a brand of wood to the other, and then draw
a white cloud of curling smoke, and we never tired of watching him. I
wanted him to let me do it, but he said, 'No, my son; it is not meant
for boys.' Then Annie put up her lips and asked, with both hands on his
knees (for she had taken to him wonderfully), 'Is it meant for girls
then cousin Tom?' But she had better not have asked, for he gave it her
to try, and she shut both eyes, and sucked at it. One breath, however,
was quite enough, for it made her cough so violently that Lizzie and
I must thump her back until she was almost crying. To atone for that,