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"Well sung, Mother Mould-heels," he cried, advancing as the old witch retired, amidst a roar of laughter from the others, and chanting as he filled the caldron: "Here is foam from a mad dog's lips, Gather'd beneath the moon's eclipse, Ashes of a shroud consumed, And with deadly vapour fumed. These within the mess I cast Stir the caldron stir it fast!"
"Well sung, Mother Mould-heels," cried a little old man, whose doublet and hose were of rusty black, with a short cloak, of the same hue, over his shoulders.
And then she began to mutter an impious address preparatory to the sacrifice, when a loud clangour was heard like the stroke of a hammer upon a bell. "What was that?" exclaimed the witch, in alarm. "Were there a clock here, I should say it had struck one," replied Mould-heels. "It must be our master's timepiece," said another witch.
"Have no fear," cried several voices, "we will catch it in our palms and quaff it." "Hast thou thy knife, Mould-heels?" asked Mother Demdike. "Ay," replied the other, "it is long and sharp, and will do thy business well. Thy grandson, Jem Device, notched it by killing swine, and my goodman ground it only yesterday. Take it."
Be that as it may, soon after these Hewits were settled at Wiswall, comes this stranger, and fixes himself in another part of the hall. How he lives no one can tell, but it is said he rambles all night long, like a troubled spirit, about the deserted rooms, attended by Mother Mould-heels; while in the daytime he is never seen." "Can he be of sound mind?" asked Richard.
"Ey never wished to dance efore," she cried, "boh ey should like to try now." "Join them, then," said Mistress Nutter. And to the little girl's infinite delight a place was made for her in the round, and, taking hands with Mother Mould-heels and the red-haired witch, she footed it as merrily as the rest.
Some few months ago an aged couple from Colne, named Hewit, took possession of part of the hall, and were suffered to remain there, though old Katty Hewit, or Mould-heels, as she is familiarly termed by the common folk, is in no very good repute hereabouts, and was driven, it is said from Colne, owing to her practices as a witch.
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