“Hencastle was en fete for a time, but it was a very short time.  For the mice were no less glad than the fowls that their enemy was dead; and now that both he and the owl had disappeared, they came out fearlessly at all hours of the day, and lived a life quite free from trouble and care.

“Not so the fowls.  What was to be done with the ever-increasing colony of corn-stealers?  The more the fowls meditated, the more the mice squeaked and played about, and the more corn they dragged away into their holes.  There was even a rumour that some one meddled with the eggs.

“There was nothing for it but to dispatch the three messengers a third time, with directions to be more vigilant and careful than before.  Away they flew, farther than ever.  The first chance of help that arose was from a couple of cats and a kite, who seemed likely to perform the required work, but the cocks declined to accept their aid, feeling that the Hencastle had suffered too much already from two-winged and four-legged protectors.

“At length the messengers reached a bit of waste ground close to a village, and there they saw an extremely grimy-looking gipsy sitting on a bank.  He knocked the ashes out of his black pipe, and muttered, ’I’ve the luck of a dog!  Here am I with a lot of the best mouse-traps in the world, and I haven’t sold one this blessed day!’

“‘Here’s luck!’ said the wise birds.  ’That is exactly the man for us; he is neither two-winged nor four-legged, so he will be quite safe.’

“They flew down at once to the rat-catcher and made their proposition.  He laughed softly and pleasantly to himself, and accepted their invitation without any demur, and started at once with a light step and lighter heart for Hencastle.

“Two days after this, the fowls heard Mark, the watchman, crowing away lustily from his chimney-pot,

    “’What do I see? 
    Here come the three! 
    And the black beast they bring
    Has no tail and no wing.’

“‘But,’ added the sentinel in less official language, ’he carries a bundle of things that look like little houses made of wire.’

“The gipsy was at once taken up to the loft, and having, luckily, a few scraps of strong-smelling bacon left over from his last night’s supper, he struck a light and managed to make a small fire in the long-disused grate with some bits of dry grass and chips.  He then frizzled some bacon and baited his traps, and in less than ten minutes he had filled them all, for the mice had never smelt such a delicious thing as fried bacon before, and besides, they were new to the wiles of man.

“The fowls were wild with delight, and in their thankfulness they bethought them of a special mark of favour, and every hen came clucking up to him and laid an egg at his feet.

“For about a week the gipsy did nothing but catch mice and eat eggs; but all things must have an end, and the bacon ran out, just when the gipsy had come to the conclusion that he was heartily sick of egg-diet.  Being a man of action, he put out his hand suddenly and caught the fattest and nicest young chicken within reach, and promptly wrung its neck.