The Junior Classics, Volume 6: Old-Fashioned Tales
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The Junior Classics, Volume 6: Old-Fashioned Tales
Children's literature
However, she resolved to have the coach, so she took them and went to
the town, where she bought a yellow chariot, with a most beautiful
coat of arms upon it, and two cream-colored horses to draw it.
In the meantime the maid ran to the magistrates, and told them she had
discovered something very dreadful, which was, that her mistress had
nothing to do but dig in the ground and that she could make money
come--coined money: "which," said the maid, "is a very terrible thing,
and it proves that she must be a witch."
The mayor and aldermen were very much shocked, for witches were
commonly believed in in those days; and when they heard that Kitty had
dug up money that very morning, and bought a yellow coach with it,
they decided that the matter must be investigated.
When Kitty drove up to her own door, she saw the mayor and aldermen
standing in the kitchen waiting for her.
She demanded what they wanted, and they said they were come in the
king's name to search the house.
Kitty immediately ran up-stairs and took the baby out of his cradle,
lest any of them should steal him, which, of course, seemed a very
probable thing for them to do. Then she went to look for her husband,
who, shocking to relate, was quite tipsy, quarrelling and arguing with
the mayor, and she actually saw him box an alderman's ears.
"The thing is proved," said the indignant mayor; "this woman is
certainly a witch."
Kitty was very much bewildered at this; but how much more when she saw
her husband seize the mayor--yes, the very mayor himself--and shake
him so hard that he actually shook his head off, and it rolled under
the dresser! "If I had not seen this with my own eyes," said Kitty, "I
could not have believed it--even now it does not seem at all real."
All the aldermen wrung their hands.
"Murder! murder!" cried the maid.
"Yes," said the aldermen, "this woman and her husband must immediately
be put to death, and the baby must be taken from them and made a
slave."
In vain Kitty fell on her knees; the proofs of their guilt were so
plain that there was no hope for mercy; and they were just going to be
led out to execution when--why, then she opened her eyes, and saw that
she was lying in bed in her own little chamber where she had lived and
been so happy; her baby beside her in his wicker [Footnote: _Wicker_:
made of willow twigs like a basket.] cradle was crowing and sucking
his fingers.
"So, then, I have never been rich, after all," said Kitty; "and it was
all only a dream! I thought it was very strange at the time that a
man's head should roll off."
And she heaved a deep sigh, and put her hand to her face, which was
wet with the tears she had shed when she thought that she and her
husband were going to be executed.
"I am very glad, then, my husband is not a drunken man; and he does
_not_ beat me; but he goes to work every day, and I am as happy as a
queen."
Just then she heard her husband's good-tempered voice whistling as he
went down the ladder.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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