e the man moved on with the squirrel on
his shoulder, drawing closer to the village; when of a sudden the boys
at play in the stream broke into such a storm of yells that he jumped
up on the bank again to look at them, and stood there for a time gaping
and grinning from ear to ear at what he saw.

For the boys had succeeded in driving a little eel into a corner and in
throwing it ashore; and there they were, dancing about like mad
creatures, unable to hold it, more than half afraid to touch it, but
always contriving to twitch the wretched wriggling thing further from
the water. One brave little maid managed for a moment to catch it in
her pinafore but dropped it instantly, as all the boys screamed: "Put
it down! he'll bite 'ee." And so they went on babbling their loudest,
when the ragged man in the road suddenly put the squirrel into his
pocket and ran down into the meadow, laughing louder than the loudest,
to take part in the fun. In spite of his long-skirted coat he was as
active as any of them, now clutching desperately at the eel with his
hand, now running at full speed for a few yards and then plunging down
on his knees, and all the while laughing and whinnying with a noise
more like that of a horse than of a man. The boys, though at first a
little startled at the appearance of such a figure in their midst, soon
screamed louder than ever with laughter at his strange antics; until at
last the ragged man got the eel fairly clamped between his fingers and
ran away with it, the whole of the children following him in full cry.
He had almost reached the road when his foot slipped and down he fell
violently on his face. The squirrel, scared to death, ran out of his
coat-pocket, and the eel slipped through his fingers into the long
grass by the ditch and was seen no more.

The man got up looking dazed and foolish, with his hair full of
forget-me-nots, into which he had plunged in his fall. The children
gathered round him hooting and screaming; and he stared at them
grinning vacantly without a word. From shouts the boys soon went on to
taunts of "Shockhead! Shockhead!" but still the ragged man stood and
grinned, until at last two of them caught sight of the squirrel and
began to hunt it about the field. Then the man's whole demeanour
changed in an instant; and charging down upon the boys he gave them a
push which laid both of them flat on the ground, while the squirrel ran
hastily up his leg and nestled in terror