Then they looked at the idiot, who had taken the squirrel out of his
pocket and was fondling it and purring to it in his own strange way.
He gave it to them also to make friends with, and seeing that they were
fond of animals he went to the door and whistled; and presently there
came trotting up a little hind of a year old, which walked in at the
door as if she had been accustomed to live in a house all her life, and
reared up like a begging dog on her hind legs to eat a bunch of
mountain-ash berries which he held over her head. Then he gave the
berries to the children, and the hind poked her little cool nose into
their hands to get at the food, so tame was she; while the old woman
told them how the idiot had found the poor little thing as a calf,
bleating beside the dead body of her dam, and had brought her home and
reared her.
But the children's eyes soon began to blink, and before long they were
more than half asleep; so the old woman brought in more heather and
made them up two little beds, and laid them down in their clothes.
They had a faint idea, both of them, that some one took off their shoes
and loosened their clothes about their necks, but they were too
comfortable (for heather makes the best of rude beds) to think very
much about it; and when Elsie felt vaguely that something warm was
thrown over her and that a voice said "Good-night," she had only just
wakefulness enough to whisper back good-night and to put up her cheek
to be kissed.
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