Suddenly the rocks by the roadside stood distinct and ruddy in a broad flickering red flare; there were moving figures, grotesque elongated shadows, among the trees. Ike Guyther stopped short, with a sudden dread of the witches of Keedon Bluffs trembling within him. Then, for he was stout-hearted, he ventured to creep along a few steps further. There under the boughs of the pines and the scarlet oaks and the yellow hickory trees a fire of pine knots flamed, throwing hilarious sparks and frisking smoke high into the melancholy white mists gathering in the woods; and grouped about it—not witches nor harnts—but the humble travelers eating their supper by the wayside. Ike recognized the clumsy cart in the shadowy background; the ox, out of the shafts, now munching his well-earned feed; the cow lying on the ground licking the head of her calf. And sitting by the fire with her yellow hair glittering, her face illumined by the blaze, her pink feet presented to the warmth, was Rosamondy, commenting gravely as her father broiled a bit of bacon on the coals and deftly constructed an ash-cake. The dogs too sat beside the fire, all upright and wide awake, and with an alert interest in the proceedings. Now and then as the man turned the meat and the savory odor would rise, one of them would twist his head admiringly askew and lick his chops in anticipation. The little girl talked continuously, her babyish voice clear on the still air, and the man listened and affected amazement when she thought she was astonishing him, and laughed mightily when she laughed, and agreed punctiliously with whatever she might say. But indeed she seemed a person who would tolerate little contradiction. The picture vanished suddenly as Ike Guyther turned back into the sombre depths of the woods. “Waal, sir!” said the shrewd young fellow to himself, “whoever b’lieves ez witches an’ harnts swarm out’n them hollows in the night times ter strangle folks ez be nigh by, the man ez stops ter cook his supper a-top o’ the Bluffs—don’t. An’ that air a true word.” The more he reflected upon the circumstance, as he took his way through the woods to rejoin Skimpy, the more he felt sure that this stranger had overheard his proposal to climb down to those hollows, and had some purpose to serve in frightening him away from the cavities in the cliffs.