CHAPTER XXIX 



MOTHER CAREY S LASH 



HE wise men tell us that it is 

 the same as the venom of 

 Snakes. They tell us that 

 it comes when the fool-trap 

 toadstool is grown stale, and 

 by these ye may know its hidden presence: 

 When the cap is old and upturned at the 

 edge, when hell -born maggots crawl and 

 burrow and revel in the stem, when drops 

 of gummy, poisonous yellow blood ooze 

 forth, when both its smells — the warning 

 smell of the crawling hundred-legger and 

 the alluring smell of strong green butter- 

 nuts — are multiplied to fourfold power. 



Their day was nearly over. They were 

 now like old worn hags, whose beauty is 



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