"
The miller replied sharply, "Why then ask me? If you do not trample my
grass, you may dance all the year round for all me."
"Thank you," replied the airy creature; "we only beg, for thy own good,
that thou wilt not mow thy grass until a shower of rain has wet it after
our dance. Remember this."
They then vanished like a thin vapor.
"Foolish people!" cried the miller; "did I ever hear such nonsense? Must
I put off my hay-making till it rains? We may not have such fine dry
weather again during the summer. I shall send my men to cut it down
to-morrow." He went back to the mill and gave his orders, but said not a
word to anybody about what he had heard and seen. When Tony, the
miller's son, was going to bed that night, he looked out of the window,
and cried to his father--
"There is a strange man with a lantern in the meadow, full of pale
lights, dancing about, sometimes forming a wide circle, now dispersing
in all directions, then mingling confusedly together."
And the latter said, "These can be nothing but jack-o-lanterns, or
wandering Willies. They come out of the boggy ground, and are driven
about by the winds. Wo to the unlucky traveller who takes them for a
guide!" After looking at the meadow awhile, they all went to bed.
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