186 MACKEREL TROLLING; t mdrjpents the curtain grew thinner ; it appeared ås-if some one was walking behind it with a light No flash was seen, but wc heard a d stant faint rumble, which I at first believed was oceasioned by the sea. "Well," said Rasmus, when he had lighted his pipe and tåken the heim again, " the boy was, as I said, a seer, and all at once, as he sat forward in the forecastle, he heard some one speaking in the hold. He peeped through a crevice, and then he saw three coal black ravens sitting on a cross-beam and talk ing about their hus bands, whom they were all tired of and whom they wished at the bot tom of the sea. It was easy to understand that they were witches, who had turned themselves into ravens. ss i But are you sure that nobody hears us ? ' asked one of the ravens. The boy knew by the voice that it was the skipper's wife. " No, of course not,' said the other two, who were the wives of the first and second mate, ' there is not a living soul on board.' " ' Well, then Illtellyou ; I know a good waytoget ridofthem,' said the skipper's wife, and jumped closer to the other two ; *we will make ourselves into three heavy seas, and strike the vessel and sink it with all hands/
