Now it chanced that Nip was under Aunt Sally’s chair at that very moment. He was fast asleep, when the wicked witch-quill popped in, taking its station exactly under his nose. Never was there such horror, as appeared in Nip’s countenance. He stuck up his back, drew his tail out at full length, set apart his jaws, and with glaring eyes gazed at the terrible monster. The comet that has lately been seen in the sky, with a tail ninety millions of miles in length, never scared any poor Millerite half so much as did Bill Keeler’s witch-quill, Aunt Sally’s cat. Nip didn’t know at all what to make of it. He had seen squirrels with long tails,――rats, moles, bats, owls, and other strange things,――but never, in all his days, had he beheld anything that spouted forth fire――real fire――before. After gazing at the witch a few seconds, Nip mustered all his courage, spit at it, and gave it a thump with his paw. Fizz――pop! went the quill! Nip’s courage was exhausted――and he ran away with all his might. Strange to say, at that moment the quill started, and shot along the floor, in the exact direction puss had taken. It stopped, however, about the middle of the school-room floor, and then it began to whirl round, popping, spinning, and fizzing, in a most wonderful style. “What on airth is that?” said Aunt Sally. “Oh dear!” “Oh dear!” “Oh dear!” said a dozen children at once. “Oh! it’s Bill Keeler! it’s Bill Keeler!” said the school mistress――knowing by instinct where all mischief came from. “Oh dear, I’m shot! I’m popped! I’m fizzed! I’m bewitched! Oh! Bill, Bill, you’ll be the death of me!” All this time, the wicked witch-quill was spinning and spouting about, in the middle of the floor. The children shrieked, and Bill Keeler laughed as if his sides would split. At last, the witch-quill, with a dying effort, hissed along the floor, and went straight at Nip, who had got beneath a writing bench. With a horrid yell, the cat fled, and leaping upon Aunt Sally’s shoulder, hung on to the flesh with all her claws. The good woman shook and pulled, but Nip held the tighter for all that; and Bill, seeing that things were getting serious, took his hat and ran. Inquisitive Jack. CHAPTER IV. _A Story about the Beetles._ One day, as Jack was going along in the field, he saw a dead mole lying upon the ground. He took it up, and admired its soft fur, and the rays upon its nose, making it look, in shape, like a star. He looked, also, very carefully to see if it had eyes, for he had been told that moles were blind.