‘May I come in and light my pipe?’ she asked.
‘No,’ answered Thursday.
But she came in, nevertheless, and having lighted her pipe, she caught up Thursday and took her across to the well.
‘What! has the witch been here again, and taken away Thursday?’ exclaimed the Little Mother when she came back from Place House without finding Wednesday, discovering that another of her children was gone.
‘Iss,’ sighed Friday. ‘She came over the doorsill before we saw her.’
‘This is too dreadful!’ cried the poor Little Mother. ‘I shall soon have no little maids left to call my own!’ and wringing her hands, she went across the lane to the well.
‘What have you been and done with Thursday, you bad old witch?’ she demanded.
‘I gave her a piece of limpet-pie, and sent her to London Churchtown to buy me a steeple-hat and a broom,’ the witch made answer, rudely puffing her pipe in Betty’s face. ‘If you go there in Marrowbone Stage,[2] you will perhaps find her.’
‘I am off to London Churchtown in Marrowbone Stage to look for Thursday,’ cried the Little Mother, returning to her cottage in great haste and excitement. ‘Keep the door and hatch locked and barred till I come back, and then, if you are good children and do as I bid, I will bring you home each a gold ring.’
When the Little Mother had driven away in Marrowbone Stage to London Churchtown in search of Thursday, Friday saw the witch leave the well and cross the road to their cottage.