86 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. : 
‘spadgers.’ The cat wandering about got caught in the 
rat-clams—ze. 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—‘T’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 to 
which all the workpeople who wanted any tools sharpened 
