“But that’s dangerous, Jenny.”
“Dangerous, godmother? My child is always dangerous, more or less. He might”—here the little creature glanced back over her shoulder at the sky—“be setting the house on fire at this present moment. I don’t know who would have a child, for my part! It’s no use shaking him. I have shaken him till I have made myself giddy. ‘Why don’t you mind your Commandments and honour your parent, you naughty old boy?’ I said to him all the time. But he only whimpered and stared at me.”
“What shall be changed, after him?” asked Riah in a compassionately playful voice.
“Upon my word, godmother, I am afraid I must be selfish next, and get you to set me right in the back and the legs. It’s a little thing to you with your power, godmother, but it’s a great deal to poor weak aching me.”
There was