86 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 



* spadgers.' The cat wandering about got caught in the 

 rat-clams — i.e. a gin. Another cat was the miller's 

 favourite at the windmill, a well-fed, happy, purring 

 pussy, fond of the floury miller — he as white as snow, 

 she as black as a coal. One day pussy was ingeniously 

 examining the machinery, when the wind suddenly rose, 

 the sails revolved, and she was ground up, fulfilling the 

 ogre's threat — ' I'll grind his bones to make my bread.' 

 This was not so sad as the fate of the innkeeper's cow. 

 You have read the ' Arabian Nights ' — that book of 

 wisdom, for in truth the stories are no stories ; they are 

 the records of ancient experience, the experience of a 

 thousand years, and some of them are as true and as 

 deeply to be pondered on as anything in the holiest 

 books the world reverences. You remember the Three 

 Calenders, each of whom lost an eye — struck out in the 

 most arbitrary and cruel fashion. The innkeeper had a 

 cow, a very pretty, quiet cow, but in time it came about 

 that her left horn, turning inwards, grew in such a 

 manner that it threatened to force the point into her 

 head. To remedy this the top of the horn was sawn off 

 and a brass knob fastened on the tip, as is the custom. 

 The cow passed the summer in the meadows with the 

 rest, till by-and-by it was found that she had gone blind 

 in the left eye. It happened in this way : the rays of 

 the sun heated the brass knob and so destroyed the 

 sight. Unable to call attention to its suffering, the poor 

 creature was compelled to endure, and could not escape. 

 Now the Three Calenders could speak, and had the 

 advantage of human intelligence, and yet each lost an 

 eye, and they were as helpless in the hands of fate as 

 this poor animal. 



Down in one of the hamlets there was a forge tc 

 which all the workpeople who wanted any togls sharpened 



