When
Farmer Griggs saw these things done, and so deftly, he rubbed his hands
and chuckled to himself. He sent cook and scullion and serving maid
a-packing, there being nothing for them to do, for, as I said, all of
these things were done as smooth as cream. But after a time, and when
the boggart's place had become easy to him, like an old shoe, mischief
began to play the pipes and he began to show his pranks. The first thing
that he did was to scrape the farmer's butter, so that it was light of
weight, and all of the people of the market town hooted at him for
giving less than he sold. Then he skimmed the children's milk, so that
they had nothing but poor watery stuff to pour over their pottage of a
morning. He took the milk from the cat, so that it was like to starve;
he even pilfered the bones and scrapings of the dishes from the poor
house-dog, as though he was a very magpie. He blew out the rush-lights,
so that they were all in the dark after sunset; he made the fires burn
cold, and played a hundred and forty other impish tricks of the like
kind. As for the poor little children, they were always crying and
complaining that the boggart did this and the boggart did that; that he
scraped the butter from their bread and pulled the coverlids off of them
at night.
Still the boggart did his work well, and so Farmer Griggs put up with
his evil ways as long as he could. At last the time came when he could
bear it no longer.
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