culiar only. The old wives of the village maintained that he was the sort that
could see elves, and that, if one but knew how, he might be induced to reveal
valuable secrets, and to confer magic favors. But, looking the other way, he
was to be dreaded as a possible (though involuntary) agent of evil; especially
perilous was it, these venerable dames would affirm, to become the object of
his affection or caresses--a dogma which received appalling confirmation in
the fate of the brindled cat, who, after having been caught by the leg in a
trap intended for a less respectable robber of hen-roosts, was finished by a
bull-terrier, who took advantage of her embarrassed circumstances to pay off
upon her a grudge of long standing. This tragedy occurred in January of the
year 1807, and produced a noticeable effect upon Master Archibald Malmaison.
He neither wept nor tore his hair, but took the far more serious course of losing
his appetite.
The most remarkable part of the story is yet to come. No one had told him th
