"At length the messengers reached a bit of waste ground close to a
village, and there they saw an extremely grimy-looking gipsy sitting on
a bank. He knocked the ashes out of his black pipe, and muttered, 'I've
the luck of a dog! Here am I with a lot of the best mouse-traps in the
world, and I haven't sold one this blessed day!'
"'Here's luck!' said the wise birds. 'That is exactly the man for us; he
is neither two-winged nor four-legged, so he will be quite safe.'
"They flew down at once to the rat-catcher and made their proposition.
He laughed softly and pleasantly to himself, and accepted their
invitation without any demur, and started at once with a light step and
lighter heart for Hencastle.
"Two days after this, the fowls heard Mark, the watchman, crowing away
lustily from his chimney-pot,
"'What do I see?
Here come the three!
And the black beast they bring
Has no tail and no wing.'
"'But,' added the sentinel in less official language, 'he carries a
bundle of things that look like little houses made of wire.'
"The gipsy was at once taken up to the loft, and having, luckily, a few
scraps of strong-smelling bacon left over from his last night's supper,
he struck a light and managed to make a small fire in the long-disused
grate with some bits of dry grass and chips.
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