I knew what he meant by that – the Moral Sense. He saw the thought in my head, and it tickled him and made him laugh. Then he called a bullock out of a pasture and petted it and talked with it, and said –

»There – he wouldn't drive children mad with hunger and fright and loneliness, and then burn them for confessing to things invented for them which had never happened. And neither would he break the hearts of innocent poor old women and make them afraid to trust themselves among their own race; and he would not insult them in their death-agony. For he is not besmirched with the Moral Sense, but is as pure from it as the angels are, and knows no wrong and never does it.«

Lovely as he was, Satan could be cruelly offensive when he chose; and he always chose, when the human race was brought to his attention. He always turned up his nose at it, and never had a kind word for it. I do not see how a person can act so.

Well, as I was saying, we boys doubted if it was a good time for Ursula to be hiring a member of the Narr family. We were right. When the people found it out they were naturally indignant. And moreover, since Marget and Ursula hadn't enough to eat, themselves, where was the money to come from to feed another mouth? That is what they wanted to know; and in order to find out, they stopped avoiding Gottfried and began to seek his society and have sociable conversations with him. He was pleased – not thinking any harm, and not seeing the trap – and so he talked innocently along, and was no discreeter than a cow.

»Money!« he said, »they've got plenty of it. They pay me two groschen a week, besides my keep. And they live on the fat of the land, I can tell you; the Prince himself can't beat their table.«

This astonishing statement was conveyed to Father Adolf on a Sunday morning when he was returning from mass. He was deeply moved, and said –

»Hell and flinders! this must be looked into.«

He said there was witchcraft at the bottom of this outrage, and told the villagers to resume relations with Marget and Ursula in a private and unostentatious way and keep both eyes open. They were to keep their own counsel, and not rouse the suspicions of the household. The villagers were at first a bit reluctant to enter such a dreadful place, but the priest said they would be under his protection while there, and no harm would come to them, particularly if they carried a trifle of holy water along and kept their beads and crosses handy. This satisfied them and made them willing to go; envy and malice made the baser sort even eager to go.

And so poor Marget began to have company again, and was as pleased as a cat. She was like 'most anybody else – just human, and happy in her prosperities and not averse from showing them off a little; and she was humanly grateful to have the warm shoulder turned to her and be smiled upon by her friends and the village again; for of all the hard things to bear, to be cut by your neighbors and left in contemptuous solitude is maybe the hardest.

The bars were down, and we could all go there now, and we did – our parents and all. Day after day. The cat began to strain herself. She provided the top of everything for those companies, and in abundance – among them many a dish and many a wine which they had not tasted before and which they had not even heard of except at second hand from the Prince's servants. And the table-ware was much above ordinary, too.

Marget was troubled at first, and pursued Ursula with questions to an uncomfortable degree; but Ursula stood her ground and stuck to it that it was Providence, and said no word about the cat. Marget knew that nothing was impossible to Providence, but she could not help having doubts that this effort was from thence, though she was afraid to say so, lest disaster come of it. Witchcraft occurred to her, but she put the thought aside, for this was before Gottfried joined the household, and she knew Ursula was pious and a bitter hater of witches. By the time Gottfried arrived Providence was established, unshakably intrenched, and getting all the gratitude. The cat made no murmur, but went on composedly working the commissariat and improving in style and prodigality by experience.

In any community, big or little, there is always a fair proportion of people who are not malicious or unkind by nature, and who never do unkind things except when they are overmastered by fear, or when their self-interest is greatly in danger, or some such matter as that. Eseldorf had its proportion of such people, and ordinarily their good and gentle influence was felt, but these were not ordinary times – on account of the witch-dread – and so we did not seem to have any gentle and compassionate hearts left, to speak of. Every person was frightened at the unaccountable state of things at Marget's house, not doubting that witchcraft was at the bottom of it, and fright frenzied their reason. Naturally there were some who pitied Marget and Ursula for the danger that was gathering about them, but naturally they did not say so – it would not have been safe. So the others had it all their own way, and there was none to advise the ignorant girl and the foolish old woman and warn them to modify their doings.