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32 MOONfOLK.
halfway to the top were joined by another old lady, the
fussiest, most restless, worrying old lady who ever lived.
Under one arm she carried a loaf of bread, and under the
other a bottle of cold tea ;
and when she was not eating
rlio was drinking, and, whether eating or drinking, she
never was quiet no, not for one single minute.
" Oh, how d'ye do, Mother " What-do-you-think
? called
out the Chimney-Elf as this old lady appeared.
" What
do you find to agree best with your delicate stomach,
now-a-days ? "
"Is that you, Chimney-Elf? Well, I do declare!
And Rhoda too ! How
d'ye do, Ehoda ? I'm proper glad
to see you. First time you ever came to the moon, isn't
it? What were you asking, Chimney-Elf what do 1
find to live on ?
Well, I hardly know ;
but I expect
victuals and drink are the chief of my diet, just as they
are of most folkses ;
and !
oh, my I do declare, if there
isn't Sister Banbury on her White Horse, and all her
jewelry.
"
I never did !
" There, that's enough, What-d'ye-think," interrupted
the Chimney-Elf ; and then turning to Rhoda, he showed
her a large wooden cross set up on a plain, some distance
below the hill where they stood. Beside the cross a
small boy was holding an old white horse, and two more
were helping an old lady to step up into a chair, and
from that to seat herself upon the horse's back.
" That's Banbury Cross," said the " Chimney-Elf, and
Mother Banbury lives just beyond it, with her three little
boys : the one holding the horse is the Baker's Man,