"This broomstick is so wild I cannot stop it," called the witch from the clouds. "Keep good care of my cat until next Halloween."
Antone put Babette in her little crib and made the black cat a comfortable bed in the kitchen. Then he lay down to sleep and dreamed of the Halloween frolic until he was wakened by his mother.
"Come, Antone!" she cried. "I have good news for you. Only look from the window and see the great black cat without a single white hair that sits washing his face in the sun. Such a cat coming to us on Halloween will surely bring us good luck! But come, my child, get up, for the sun is high, and it is time for you to dig your vegetables for market."
"My vegetables have gone wild in the forest," muttered Antone, "but it is no matter, for here is a bag of gold which they gave me. The cat is the black cat of the witch who brought us home on her broomstick; so let me sleep, Mother, for I am weary with dancing at the Halloween frolic." He closed his eyes and slept again, while his mother examined the leather bag.
"Antone, my son!" she screamed. "Here is gold yellow as a pumpkin! Where have you been to gather such wealth?" She shook him and gave him no peace until he waked fully and told the story. Even then his mother did not believe it, but threw up her hands and wept that her son should thus rave with fever.
The woodcutter and Babette came running to see what had happened, and at the sight of the second bag of gold the poor woman grew calmer. Babette showed the peppermint which the witch had given her, and the mother doubted no more.
"To receive a peppermint from a witch is surely a mark of great favor," said she, and began to laugh through her tears. "I thought I was dreaming or that Antone raved of fever, for never in my life had I seen so much gold."
"It is like the fairies to bless the children of the poor," said the woodcutter. "Now Antone will go to school, and Mother will have a handsome dress and shawl."
"And is it not as I said?" cried his wife. "A black cat coming on Halloween would bring us good luck, and here is the luck already!"
It would have been hard to find a happier family than the woodcutter's as they set out for the village that day. When it was told that the woodcutter was looking for a pair of oxen, some folk laughed outright. The woodcutter was too poor to feed a pair of canaries, they declared; but when it became known that the woodcutter's wife had bought a new dress and a golden ring, they began to wonder who had died and left the woodcutter a fortune. Antone told the tale of their wealth to those who questioned him, and straightway the village children ran to throw their jack-o'-lanterns from the roofs and high places. But their pumpkins broke or stayed on the ground below where they had fallen (it was no longer Halloween, remember). At noon, when the woodcutter and his family sat down to dinner in the village inn, the landlord threatened to charge a penny from all who stood gazing through the windows. Some folk scoffed openly and declared it was a tale to tell children and dullards; but there were the two leather bags filled with gold. The greatest marvel of all was, that no matter how much the woodcutter or his wife spent from these, the bags always remained brimful of gold!