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sure So ye see it were precious lucky for you as you was

a-wearin' o' that there--"

"It certainly was," said I, turning away

"--that there bell-crowner, and likewise as I'iment, and of a inquirin'--"

"Without doubt," said I, vaulting over the gate into the road

once more

"--turn o' mind, because if I 'adn't 'a' been, and you 'adn't 'a'

wore that there bell-crowner--"

"The consequences are unpleasantly obvious!" said I, over my

shoulder, as I walked on down the road

"--I should ha' shot ye--like a dog!" he shouted, hanging over

the gate to do so

And, when I had gone on some distance, I took off that which the

man had called a "bell-crowner," and bestowed upon it a touch,

and looked at it as I had never done before; and there was

gratitude in look and touch, for tonight it had, indeed, stood my

friend

Slowly, slowly the moon, at whose advent the starry host "paled

their ineffectual fires," her, in queenly lory, and the road before me became transformed into a

silver track splashed here and there with the inky shadow of

hedge and trees, and leading away into a land of "Faerie"