58 ANGLING SKETCHES 



outhouse to look for a piece of sheepskin wherewith 

 to mend the flail. He was long absent, and his 

 companion went after him. He found him 

 struggling in the arms of a ghostly maid, who had 

 nearly murdered him, but departed on the arrival 

 of his friend. It is not easy to make out what these 

 ghoulish women are — not fairies exactly, nor witches, 

 nor vampires. For example, three shepherds at a 

 lonely shelling were discoursing of their loves, and 

 it was, ' Oh, how happy I should be if Katie were 

 here, or Maggie, or Bessie ! ' as the case might be. 

 So they would say and so they would wish, and 

 lo ! one evening, the three girls came to the door 

 of the hut. So they made them welcome ; but 

 one of the shepherds was playing the Jew's-harp, 

 and he did not like the turn matters were taking. 



The two others stole off into corners of the 

 darkling hut with their lovers, but this prudent lad 

 never took his lips off the Jew's-harp. 



' Harping is good if no ill follows it,' said 

 the semblance of his sweetheart ; but he never 

 answered. He played and thrummed, and out of 

 one dark corner trickled red blood into the fire- 



