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NATHANIEL.
Father! here father! I have found a horse-shoe!
Faith it was just in time, for t’other night
I laid two straws across at Margery’s door,
And afterwards I fear’d that she might do me
A mischief for’t. There was the Miller’s boy
Who set his dog at that black cat of hers,
I met him upon crutches, and he told me
‘Twas all her evil eye.

FATHER.
‘Tis rare good luck;
I would have gladly given a crown for one
If t’would have done as well. But where did’st find it?

NATHANIEL.
Down on the Common; I was going a-field
And neighbour Saunders pass’d me on his mare;
He had hardly said “good day,” before I saw
The shoe drop off; ’twas just upon my tongue
To call him back,–it makes no difference, does it.
Because I know whose ’twas?

FATHER.
Why no, it can’t.
The shoe’s the same you know, and you ‘did find’ it.

NATHANIEL.
That mare of his has got a plaguey road
To travel, father, and if he should lame her,
For she is but tender-footed,–

FATHER.
Aye, indeed–
I should not like to see her limping back
Poor beast! but charity begins at home,
And Nat, there’s our own horse in such a way
This morning!

NATHANIEL.
Why he ha’nt been rid again!
Last night I hung a pebble by the manger
With a hole thro’, and every body says
That ’tis a special charm against the hags.

FATHER.
It could not be a proper natural hole then,
Or ’twas not a right pebble,–for I found him
Smoking with sweat, quaking in every limb,
And panting so! God knows where he had been
When we were all asleep, thro’ bush and brake
Up-hill and down-hill all alike, full stretch
At such a deadly rate!–

NATHANIEL.
By land and water,
Over the sea perhaps!–I have heard tell
That ’tis some thousand miles, almost at the end
Of the world, where witches go to meet the Devil.
They used to ride on broomsticks, and to smear
Some ointment over them and then away
Out of the window! but ’tis worse than all
To worry the poor beasts so. Shame upon it
That in a Christian country they should let
Such creatures live!

FATHER.
And when there’s such plain proof!
I did but threaten her because she robb’d
Our hedge, and the next night there came a wind
That made me shake to hear it in my bed!
How came it that that storm unroofed my barn,
And only mine in the parish? look at her
And that’s enough; she has it in her face–
A pair of large dead eyes, rank in her head,
Just like a corpse, and purs’d with wrinkles round,
A nose and chin that scarce leave room between
For her lean fingers to squeeze in the snuff,
And when she speaks! I’d sooner hear a raven
Croak at my door! she sits there, nose and knees
Smoak-dried and shrivell’d over a starved fire,
With that black cat beside her, whose great eyes
Shine like old Beelzebub’s, and to be sure
It must be one of his imps!–aye, nail it hard.

NATHANIEL.
I wish old Margery heard the hammer go!
She’d curse the music.

FATHER.
Here’s the Curate coming,
He ought to rid the parish of such vermin;
In the old times they used to hunt them out
And hang them without mercy, but Lord bless us!
The world is grown so wicked!