’But someway at his wake, with all that was going on there, the two bottles got broken, or if they did not they were lost.’

* * * * *

Then another said:  ’There was a servant-girl left to mind her master’s house one time.  And she heard a noise below the window, and she opened it to look out.  And she saw the hand of a man on the window ledge, that was climbing up to rob the house.  And when he put his hand up, she took a little hatchet she had and cut his hand off.

’The same thing happened with another man and another after him again, till she had killed six.  But when she was striking at the seventh, he drew back, and all she cut off was his finger.

’When the master came back, she got great praise and great reward, so that she had plenty of money.  And one day a man came to ask her in marriage; and she did not know him to be the robber that escaped, and she married him.

’But after a while he brought her out through the fields to where there was a little bridge over the river.  And when they got to it, he told her he was the man she had cut the finger off, and that he had brought her there to kill her.

’"Give me time to say my prayers first,” she said.  So he gave her time for that, and she knelt down; and presently she turned round and he was on the bridge beside her, and she gave him a push into the water.  And that was the end of the seventh of the robbers.

‘And then she went home again.  That’s my story.’

* * * * *

And then the old man, whose brother has fought for the king, and hasn’t sent him anything, said: 

‘Peace is made.  That’s my story.  Will you give me tobacco for that?’

But this being the last day, they all had tobacco—­story-tellers and all.

* * * * *

And here is the last story:  ’There was a steward one time in the employment of a gentleman; and he was a good, honourable man.  And he used to make the Sunday begin at twelve o’clock on Saturday; and to ring the bell then for the workmen to go home.

’He got sick at last, and his death was drawing near; and he asked one request of his master, and that was, that after his death he would put his body on a car, but not direct it anywhere; but to let it go what way the horse would bring it.

’So the master did that; and they put the body on a car, and the carman went along with it; but he did not direct the horse, but let it go what way it liked.

’And it went on a long way; and then they came to a path that was all full of spearheads sticking up through the ground.  But the horse went on; and wherever it went, the spearheads would sink away before it.

’They came at last to a house, and the horse stopped at the door; and the people of the house came out and brought in the body; and the carman went along with it, and he lay down and slept awhile.