"Once on a time, there was a man who had a mill by the side of a force,
and in the mill there was a brownie. Whether the man, as is the custom
in most places, gave the brownie porridge and ale at Yule to bring grist
to the mill, I can't say, but I don't think he did, for every time he
turned the water on the mill, the brownie took hold of the spindle and
stopped the mill, so that he couldn't grind a sack.
"The man know well enough it was all the brownie's work, and at last one
evening, when he went into the mill, he took a pot full of pitch and
tar, and lit a fire under it. Well! when he turned the water on the
wheel, it went round awhile, but soon after it made a dead stop. So he
turned, and twisted, and put his shoulder to the top of the wheel, but
it was all no good. By this time the pot of pitch was boiling hot, and
then he opened the trap-door which opened on to the ladder that went
down into the wheel, and if he didn't see the brownie standing on the
steps of the ladder with his jaws all a-gape, and he gaped so wide that
his mouth filled up the whole trap-door.
"'Did you ever see such a wide mouth?' said the brownie.
"But the man was handy with his pitch. He caught up the pot and threw
it, pitch and all, into the gaping jaws.
"'Did you ever feel such hot pitch?'
"Then the brownie let the wheel go, and yelled and howled frightfully.
Since then he has been never known to stop the wheel in that mill, and
there they ground in peace."
* * * * *
Yes! Anders had heard a story something like that, only it was about a
water kelpy, not a brownie. Brownies, he declared, never did folk much
harm, except lazy maids and idle grooms, but kelpies were spiteful, and
hated men. Besides, brownies hated water, they couldn't bear to cross a
running stream; then how could they live in a mill? No, it was a kelpy,
and his grandmother had told him so.
Then, after a pause, he went on, "But I know another story of a mill
which was not canny, and I'll tell it if you like."