"He never said a word; he dare not; but went down flat upon his face, and laid there till she'd gone." "I'd ha' spoke to her if it had been me." "Nay, thou wouldn't. It be too dreadful. Maybe she'd ha' put a spell upon thee, and cursed thee like, and then thou'd ha' pined away like Susan Harron. You marn't speak to a witch when she be out o' nights." "But dost think she do conjure up meal, and sugar, and bacon?" "Why, could she get 'em if she didn't?" "I don't believe about the white ghost." "Eh, but it be true enough," said another. "Why, I used to see the old witch go o' nights to dig about the Pool-house, and Mas' Tom Croftly said, when I telled him, that it was to get burned bones to make spells with. I see her night after night, when the stones was smoking still." "Eh, she be witch enough," said another. "See how she said that the Pool-house would be blown up some day, and never be builded again. I think she goes with one o' they owls, as flits about o' nights." "Shouldn't wonder," said the woman with i the child; "and, if she do screech, see if it bean't just like they call." "She'll fly out o' the fire like one o' they, see if she don't, and her wings won't even be singed. I wonder whether she'll come back again, and live about here like an owl. If she do I shan't stay i' this neighb'rood to please nobody, so there." "Nay, she won't fly away," said one who had not yet spoken. "She'll go down into the earth like, and underneath or into the rocks. Frank Goodsell told me he saw her go right into a solid piece o' rockstone one night as he crossed the forest--she was there one moment, and the next moment she was gone--and became so frighted that he ran away." "But he ought to ha' searched the place." "So he did next day, for he was 'shamed o' being scared by an old woman." "Yes; and what did he see?" "Solid stones, and not a hole big enough for a mouse to get into and hide. She just touched the rock with her stick, and it opened and she went in, and it shut up after her. That be a real witch, that be." "It be a terrifying thing to think of," said another. "Only think of going into the earth and stopping for days, like a corpse." "Nay, but she didn't do that?" "Eh, but she did, for Frank Goodsell went every day to her cottage to see if she was there, pretending he wanted a charm for a pain in his wife's leg; and he had to go ten days before he found her back, and then she was as quiet and smiling as could be, only she looked white and very terrifying to see." "Ah, lots of us wondered how she used to live. She'll be back there soon; you see, they'll never get her to burn; and, if they do, she'll harnt the place, and make it bad for everybody. I'm not going to throw a stone at her, poor soul." "Poor soul, indeed, why she beant got one. She sold it to old what's-his-name long ago." "Eh, but it be very horrid, said the woman with the child; and I half wish I had not come to see her burned to death."