The rabbits were listening, with their long ears erect.
"That I cannot tell, but Nan is going after it."
"Nan! but she is so small."
"Is she?" exclaimed the hen. "You should see her now that she has eaten the porridge: she is much taller than her mother, and her legs are so long that she can skim over the ground like an ostrich."
"Then she will get the cat."
"Perhaps. One does not know," answered the hen.
"I hope she will," said a young rabbit.
"I hope she won't," said an old rabbit, "for then she will bring her back here."
There was a groan amongst the rabbits and the poultry. And then the Virginian creeper, that was twisting and turning and throwing its leaves about all over the trellis, began to quiver and shake as if it were trying to say something, and at last a very tiny voice came from one of the shoots, and said—
"Should Nan the flying house o'ertake,
She will with it long journeys make,
And come back here no more."