"Alas!" replied the farmer's wife, "I have no drink to offer you except water, else you would have no occasion to ask me for it."
"Are you not the owner of the cattle I see yonder?" said the old hag, with a tone of voice and manner of gesticulation which plainly indicated her foreknowledge of the fact.
Mrs. Costigan replied in the affirmative, and briefly related to her every circumstance connected with the affair, whilst the old woman still remained silent, but shook her grey head repeatedly; and still continued gazing round the house with an air of importance and self-sufficiency.
When Mrs. C. had ended, the old hag remained a while as if in a deep reverie: at length she said—
"Have you any of the milk in the house?"
"I have," replied the other.
"Show me some of it."
She filled a jug from a vessel and handed it to the old sybil, who smelled it, then tasted it, and spat out what she had taken on the floor.
"Where is your husband?" she asked.
"Out in the fields," was the reply.