The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-27


 they leaped into the air. clamoring pit
 eously. Miserable vagabondsi How
 much longer will you keep me waiting?''
 They darted upstairs again and returned
 with two cocoanut shells lined with
 leather which they slipped over the old
 woman's feet Immediately all totterinG
 and limping vanished. She threw her
 staff away and glided with extraordinary
 speed over the glass floor, drawing little
 Jacob with her.
 They stopped in a room that was filled
 with utensils which made it appear that
 it was kitchen, though the tables were
 of mahogany and there were sofas and
 rich rugs that seemed more suitable for a room of state. Sit down." said she pleasantly, thrusting Jacob into sofa
 corner and pushing a table in front of him so that he could not escape. Sit down. You have had a heavy load to carry. Human heads are not light, not light"
 .'How queerly you talk!" said Jacob. "Why do you call cabbage heads human heads?"
 1 "Ah, you do not know what I bought ] from your motherl" laughed the woman. l She opened the sack, put her hand in 1 and drew forth human head, which she 1 held up by the hair. The boy was almost senseless from fright. He could not un- derstand how this strange thing had hap pened He thought with dread that his l mother would be sent to prison if anybody were to learn of it.
 q must give you something now be- cause you are so nice," muttered the hag' .sBe patient for a little while. will make won A. broth that you will remember all your life"
 She whistled again. A great horde or ] guinea pigs garbed like cooks rushed h. They wore aprons and had great ladies and carving knives in their belts. Behind them came a swarm of squirrels. They wore Arabic costume and green velVet caps and evidently were kitchen ap- prentices. for they climbed swiftly along the walls and brought pans and ooWls' eggs and butter. herbs and flour ana car ried them to the hearth.
 The old woman moved so briskly on her eocoanut shells and was so busy that Jacob knew she was going to cook him something extraordinary good. The nre famed nightly, the pan smoked ana spread a delicious aroma through the room. The old woman raced up and down, 1 the guinea pigs and squirrels followed ! her. and as often as she passed the pan ! she peered into it minutely. Suddenly it began to bubble and hiss. | The foam rose over the edge. She poured it into a silver bowl and set it before : Jacob.
 | "So. little son." said she. Eat this broth, and you shall have everything that you liked so we'll on mel You shall be- come a good cook. too, so that you shall have a tradei But the herb-no, the herb YOU shall never find. Why did not your mother have it in her basket?"
 The lad did not understand what she meant. but his attention was soon de- voted entirely to the broth. His mother had often cooked dainty thing, yet her hest achievements could not be compared with this AS he was greedy devour1ns the last few drops of the delicious dish the guinea pigs lit sticks of incense. Blue clouds of smoke filled the room. They wreathed themselves thiclsly around him. The incense began to stupefy him. He tried to shout in order to wake himsen but he sank back again and slept soundly.
 Strange dreams came to him as soon as his eyes closed. He dreamed first that the old woman was taking his clothes away and replacing them with squirrel skin. It seemed to him that he was able at once to climb and leap like the others. Then he dreamed that he became one of the servants and found the squirrels and guinea pigs very well-behayed, polite per sons.
 His first service was to polish the cocoa nut shell shoes. He dreamed that this lasted for a year. Then he was promoted to more artistic work. He and some other squirrels had to catch the notes in the sunbeams and sift them through the finest of seves. The old woman had no teeth and all her bread was made of them.
 After another year had passed he was promoted again and joined the servants who gathered drinking water for her. She had no crude water supply like cis- tern or well. The squirrels and Jacob had to dip the dew out of rosebuds. AS she drank a good deal, the water car r:ers had hard work.
 | After another year, 1t seemed to him in | his dream, he became a house servant and obtained the responsible office of floor cleaner. As these were glass, which showed every breath, it was an exactipg l duty. The floor cleaners had to strap | brushes and rags to their feet and then dart about till the glass was perfectly | clear.
 | It was not until his fourth year that he reached the high honor of admission to | the kitchen. He served from the lowest | position of kitchen boy through all the | ranks till he became the chief pastry | cook and attained such experience and | skill that he was amazed at himself. Pas i tries of two hundred essentials, herb soups composed of all the herbs of the | earth he learned to make them all and l he made them all perfectly. | Thus seven years passed. One day the | old woman slipped out of her cocoanut | shells and took basket and staff to go out. l She ordered him to stuff a chicken with l herbs and have 1t roasted for her on her return. He did 1t according to all the | rules of art. When he went to the herb room he saw q wall closet whose door | was half opened. something that he had never noticed before. He looked in and