eople pouring
out and flying and whirling around him like a swarm of butterflies.
They caught him up and carried him inside the rath, so lightly that he
could not tell what was holding him, and he felt as if he was floating
in the air. He was a little frightened at first, but when they had him
inside the rath they set him up above all the musicians and thanked
him for mending their song, and did him all sorts of honor.

"Then he saw some of the Good People talking together in a little
group, and presently they came up to him, and one of them said:
'Lusmore, we've been thinking what will we do for you as a reward for
mending our song, and we've decided to ask yourself what it is that
you'ld rather we'ld give you. Think, now, what it is that you'ld
rather have than anything else in the world.'

"'It's obliged to you I am for your kindness, gentlemen,' said
Lusmore, 'but if you'ld do what would please me most in all the world,
it's not giving me anything you'ld be, but taking something from me,
and that's this hump that I have on my back.'

"'That's easy done,' said the one of them that had spoken before;
'come on now and dance with us.'

"Well, Lusmore, being crooked the way he was, and always weak, had
never danced before in his life, and he never thought he could; but
when they took hold of him on both sides and led him out, he found
that he was dancing with the best of them, and he felt so light and he
moved so easily that it seemed to him as if he was no more than a
feather that the wind was blowing about. Then one of the Good People
said to him, 'Lusmore, where is your hump now?'

"And he felt behind him for it, and it was not on his back at all.
'Look down on the floor,' said the one that had spoken to him, again.
And he looked down, and there was his hump, lying on the floor before
him.

"Then they all began dancing again and Lusmore with them, till he felt
tired and then dizzy, and then he fell to the ground, and he knew
nothing more till he awoke in the morning and found himself lying on
the ground outside the rath, where he had sat down to rest the night
before. The first thing he thought was that it was a dream that he had
had, but he never had felt so well and so strong in his life as he did
that minute. So he put his hand behind him, and there was no hump
there. And, what was more, he had on a new suit of clothes that the
Good People had given him. Then he went home and told his neighbors
what had hap