the truth must be told, very handsome; but quantity, you know, may make up for quality."

"Hum!" said the old man testily, for he evidently did not relish the compliment.

However, Edgar went on as if he did not care whether the old gentleman was huffy or not. "It's a cold raw evening; don't you ever have such a thing as a fire?"

"Cold!" said the old man, with a very disagreeable smile; "cold! we do not often complain of cold here. Light a fire!" said he to the little ugly fellows that were playing and tumbling about upon the floor; upon which they all jumped up, and scampered down the hall, crying, "Cooky, cooky, cooky, daddy wants a fire.”

Upon which a withered old hag made her appearance so withered, so dirty, and so ragged, that she formed a singular contrast to the splendour of everything around. She had a beard nearly three inches long, not of thick hair like a man's beard, but formed of distinct separate bristles like a cat's whiskers. She did not come, as any Christian would, to

light a fire, with a coal-scuttle, a fagot, a handful of shavings, and a tallow candle; but in one hand she held a small phial, and with the other she dragged a large broom after her. She walked in a circle three times round a spot in the centre of the hall, muttering something to herself, and then she poured a few drops of the liquor on the pavement. A flame immediately rose up half way to the ceiling, appearing as if it burned of its own accord without any fuel to supply it. The old hag then jumped through the middle of the flame, made a sort of grotesque obeisance, and hobbled off.

The flame burned gradually lower and lower, then suddenly flared up again, and then burnt lower again. But every time it flared up, it rose higher than it did before, and it did not fall down quite so low as the last time. The heat soon became most oppressive, but Edgar was determined not to show any uneasiness.

At length, however, he fancied that he was beginning to be baked brown, and that his skin was becoming stiff, like the crack

ling of a roasted pig. It evidently would not do to let things go on so much longer; so he turned to the old man, and said, "Don't you think that the room is getting rather

warm?"

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"Rather warm!" said the old man with a chuckle, "Rather warm! Put out the fire." Cooky, cooky, cooky," said the little ugly fellows again. The old hag made her appearance, and squatted down by the flame. She gave one puff with her breath, just as one would blow out a candle, and out went the flame.

Edgar was not a little pleased to see the fire put out so easily. It was also very satisfactory to find that the hermit did every thing he was asked. In short, he began to find himself much more at home than before. So he turned round to the old man and said, "How do you manage to spend your long winter evenings? could not now one of these little fellows give us a song or a little music ?" "Music!" said the old man; "Music! bring music."

"Music! music!" hallooed all the little fellows in the hall.

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Presently in marched two little creatures, really not much above three feet high, carrying between them a small three-legged stool: after them strutted in a fellow, with a peaked nose and beaver hat on his head, looped up with a red stone, that sparkled and glistened like a red-hot coal, with a long cock's feather stuck in it. The little creatures put down the stool in the centre of the hall, and the fellow with the peaked nose stood upon it, and began bowing and ducking, and flourishing away with a roll of paper that he held in his hand. Edgar could not make out this sort of dumb music, and was just turning round to ask for some explanation, when in came a dozen more stools, which were ranged in a row behind the man with the hat and feather. After these strutted in the musicians, who took their seats with a great appearance of self-importance. There was one little wizen fellow with a sort of triangle; but the notes were made by striking pieces of iron of different lengths. Then there was one that played two flageolets, one out of each corner of his mouth.

Then there was another with a red face and inflated cheeks, that blew a sort of trumpet or French horn, which curled and twisted and curled till there appeared no end of it; then there was one with very long arms, that played upon a clarionet that was at least as long as himself; indeed his arms appeared to have been made for the express purpose of fingering the lower notes. Then there was a sort of instrument, resembling a hurdy-gurdy, but it was so large, that it required two persons to manage it. One turned the handle, and the other played upon it, by pressing down the strings upon a revolving wheel. It is supposed that this is the same instrument that was known to our ancestors under the name of the "Viol de Gamba."

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After two or three solitary notes by way tuning up, they all started off together, and made a glorious noise. The little fellow with the hat and feather flourished his roll of paper, and bowed and twisted about as if he thought he was performing his part with great elegance. The operative musicians fiddled and strummed, and tingled and