10 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



every house in the village; but I cannot affirm 

 that I myself ever saw it. It was an enormous 

 mouse, of a dark brown colour, and did an im- 

 mensity of mischief. No cat could face it ; and as 

 it wandered through the village, all the dogs would 

 take off, frightened out of their wits, and howling 

 as they ran away. William Wilkinson, Mr. Sto- 

 rey's farming man, told me he had often seen it, 

 but that it terrified him to such a degree that he 

 could not move from the place where he was 

 standing. 



' ' Our master kept a large tom-cat in the house. 

 A fine young man, in the neighbouring village of 

 Ferryhill, had been severely bitten by a cat, and 

 he died raving mad. On the day that we got this 

 information from Timothy Pickering, the carpen- 

 ter at Tudhoe, I was on the prowl for adventures, 

 and in passing through Mr. Storey's back kitchen, 

 his big black cat came up to me. Whilst I was 

 tickling its bushy tail, it turned round upon me, 

 and gave me a severe bite in the calf of the leg. 

 This I kept a profound secret, but I was quite sure 

 I should go mad every day, for many months 

 afterwards. 



"There was a blacksmith's shop leading down 

 the village to Tudhoe Old Hall. Just opposite this 

 shop was a pond, on the other side of the road. 

 When any sudden death was to take place, or any 

 sudden ill to befall the village, a large black horse 

 used to emerge from it, and walk slowly up and 

 down the village, carrying a rider without a head. 

 The blacksmith's grandfather, his father, himself, 

 his three sons, and two daughters, had seen this 

 midnight apparition rise out of the pond, and re- 



