The rest of them thought that she ought not to stay, but while they were disputing about this and looking after the horses, she crept farther and farther into the stable, and at last sat down behind the door, and when once she was inside no one took any more notice of her.
As the night wore on the stable boys found it rather cold work to sit still on horseback.
‘Hutetu! But it is fearfully cold!’ said one, and began to beat his arms backwards and forwards across his breast.
‘Yes, I am so cold that my teeth are chattering,’ said another.
‘If one had but a little tobacco,’ said a third.
Well, one of them had a little, so they shared it among them, though there was very little for each man, but they chewed it. This was some help to them, but very soon they were just as cold as before.
‘Hutetu!’ said one of them, shivering again.
‘Hutetu!’ said the old woman, gnashing her teeth together till they chattered inside her mouth; and then she got out the flask which contained nothing but brandy, and her hands trembled so that she shook the bottle about, and when she drank it made a great gulp in her throat.
‘What is that you have in your flask, old woman?’ asked one of the stable boys.
‘Oh, it’s only a little drop of brandy, your honour,’ she said.