Violet Jacob > Stories told by the miller

14 STORIES TOLD BY THE MILLER
of pots and pans and voices coming nearer.
She crept to the wall and looked over. A whole
crowd of boys was coming with sticks in their
hands, shouting, and as they caught sight of
her, they cried louder, brandishing them. Some
even had the handles of old brooms and the
goat-boy was at their head, beating a tin kettle.
“ There she is!” he cried.
Then the poor Nix understood that they had
come out after her, and she climbed out of the
graveyard on the side nearest the sea and
began to run for her life. She rushed down
a narrow path winding among great boulders,
and, when she was exhausted, she crept behind
one of them and lay there till the voices had
died away and she thought her pursuers had
given up the chase. When all was still she
rose and went on, not knowing where to go for
peace. Great tears stood in her eyes as she
thought of the mill and the trees by the dam.
In time she came to a huge crag standing
out into the waves and joined to the land by
only a neck of rock no wider than the top of a
wall. She had no fear of growing giddy, for
she knew nothing of the uncomfortable things
that happen to human beings, so she crossed