Her body was
thick and long, yet she looked like a dwarf, for she scarcely had any
legs, only enormous knees and feet; and her garments were old ragged
horse-rugs tied round her body with thongs of hide. She stared at me
out of a pair of small black rat eyes, then, setting down her bundle,
asked me what I wanted. I told her I was a tired traveller, and wanted
food and shelter. 'Shelter you can have: food there is none,' she said;
then, taking up her sticks, she passed to the inner room and secured
it with a bolt on the inside. She had not inspired me with love, and
there was little danger of my attempting to intrude on her there. It
was a black, stormy night, and very soon the rain began to fall in
torrents. Several times the sow, with her young pigs loudly squealing,
came in for shelter, and I was forced to get up and beat them out with
my whip. At length, through the mud partition separating the two rooms,
I heard the crackling of a fire which the vile woman was lighting;
and, before long, through the chinks came the savoury smell of roast
meat. That surprised me greatly, for I had searched the room and failed
to find anything to eat in it. I concluded that she had brought in the
meat under her garments, but where she had got it was a mystery. At
length I began to doze. There were many sounds in my ear as of thunder
and wind, the pigs grunting at the door, and the crackling of the fire
in the hag's room.
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