esently he observed:

"Last winter my ear-lugs shet up my hearin' purty near, and I hed ter
punch a hole in 'em, and then I didn't hear very loud."

Bill looked at the goblin leering at him in the moonlight and wondered
how much mockery, how much earnestness there was in his words. As for
Blind Benner, he was so much vexed as to lose his patience. Yet, willing
to avoid a quarrel, he asked Bill how his violin did.

"Well, very well," Bill replied. "Last night I named her Magdalene, for
in her dwell seven devils of fascination. She went before me, and I
followed. We climbed heights, we plunged into depths, until I fell
prostrate, worn out in the chase after the phantom, Music, who smiled on
me pityingly as she stepped into her star chariot drawn by flying
meteors."

Blind Benner, enraptured, cried:

"Go on, go on."

But Hunch again checked Bill's enthusiasm by pointing to the Milky Way,
dim through the moonlight, and remarking:

"Jerushy! What a lot uv crazy fiddlers' girls must be out ridin'
ternight."

Benner's face at first expressed contempt, but it softened to compassion
as he said:

"'Tain't yer fault, Hunch. Yer ain't got it in yer head."

But Bill thought Hunch had it in his head, and resolved never to mention
the sound-softener nor use high-sounding phrases before him. Becoming
more practical, he invited his guests indoors, curious to know the
object of their visit, yet too courteous to inquire. Benner did not keep
him long in ignorance.

"The McAnay boys is gone ter hunt Gill, but they'll never find him, an'
me an' Hunch is goin' ter find the boys an' help 'em git Gill. Then
they'll bring him back an' make him marry Lizzi right."

"How can you help find him?" Bill asked gently and not incredulously.

"By my ears. He can't fool 'em if they'd ever hear him laugh er speak,
but he might fool the boys' eyes."

"That's so," Bill assented. "But how are you and Hunch goin' to keep up
with the big McAnays? They wouldn't want to be bothered with you."

He was considering the plan practically.

"We thought mebbe you'd lend us yer spring wagon," Benner said timidly.

"Of course I would, and drive it too, if I had somebody to look after
the place."

"Gee-whitaker!" shouted Hunch. "Wouldn't that be the dandy fun, though."

"We could give concerts to pay expenses," Bill continued, "only I'm
afraid of the devil."

"Thunder! I'd blow the devil up his own chimney with my horn," Hunch
fairly screamed, gre