"I hadn't been there long before the mud began to bubble up again, and out of it came the old witch. And then what seemed to be a thick mist cleared away, and there was the old witch's house, and inside I could see the beautiful little girl crying for her father. I intended to run home and tell what I had seen, but before I could move out of my tracks I heard the old woman coming to the well. In coming up out of the quagmire she had got mud on her feet. She had pulled off her shoes for comfort, and had been going about in her stocking-feet, and of course when she disappeared in the quagmire, and came up through it again, her stockings were full of mud; and so she came to the well to wash them. "I didn't know whether to run or stay, but I stayed, and as soon as the old woman got in sight, I sat on the ground and began to rock my body backwards and forwards, crying,-- "'Oh, mercy me! Oh, what shall I do? I can't get the black mud off of my shoe!' "The old woman seemed to be very angry when she first saw me, but I pretended to pay no attention to her. I just rocked backwards and forwards, and cried that I couldn't get the black mud off of my shoe. The old woman sat down and pulled off her stockings, and began to wash them. When she had finished one, she threw it behind her on the grass to dry. Being wet and heavy it fell farther from her hand than she intended. It fell close to me, and I picked it up and stuffed it in my pocket." "What for?" asked Buster John bluntly. "Well, I hardly know," replied Chickamy Crany Crow, somewhat embarrassed at the suddenness of the question. "I wanted to get even with her for stealing my fat chicken. I hardly knew what I was doing, and I certainly didn't know how it would turn out. Well, I stuffed the old woman's wet stocking in my pocket, and kept on crying out that I didn't know how to get the black mud off of my shoe. "'Do as I do,' said the old woman. Then I went and sat on the grass in front of her, and washed the mud from my shoe. "For the first time I saw what a horrible-looking creature the old woman was. Her eyes were sunk in her head, her nose was hooked over her mouth, and she had two long upper teeth that hung lower than her under lip. I says to myself, 'Well, old lady, if you are not a witch, there never was one.' She washed her stocking, mumbling and chewing, and when she had finished she threw it behind her, and sat hugging her knees, and glaring at me in a way that made my flesh crawl. "'What is your name?' says she. "'Chickamy Crany Crow,' says I. "'What are you doing here?' says she. "Says I, 'I went to the well to wash my toe, but when I came back my chicken was gone.'