"And for why?" saith Keren. "Thou knowest as well as I do, Happuch," saith my wife; whereat up started my crack-brain in a fine fury. "Why wilt thou call me that vile name, when thou knowest how it maddens me?" saith she, hurling her spindle upon the floor, and tightening both her pretty hands so that they looked like balls o' her own brown yarn. "For that I am not pleased with thee, Happuch," saith her mother, with all composure, looking at the linen as she washed it, with her head cocked to one side. "There again!" shouted my wildfire, stamping with her foot. "Why didst thou not call me Beelzebub and have done with 't?" "For the reason," quoth her mother, calmly, "that neither Beel nor Zebub is a suiting name for a woman, and, furthermore, that thou art not the Devil, though thou dost act like him on occasions." "Wife, wife," put in I, seeing that the girl was like to split with rage, "speak gentler to Keren." "To Happuch," saith she. "Speak gentler to the girl," saith I, hoping to compromise, as 'twere. "Happuch," saith my wife again. "Well, well," saith I, still hoping to split the difference, so that I would have neither my wife nor my daughter upon me, "if thou wouldst only speak gentler to Keren-Happuch, thou--" "To Happuch," saith my wife a third time; whereat the lass did bounce out o' the house without more ado, and spent that night with a friend o' her own, by name one Mistress Meg Titmouse. "Wife," saith I unto her later, hoping to draw her into converse concerning Keren, so that I might reason with her as to her treatment o' th' lass--"wife," saith I, amiably, and, as I thought, in a manner most winsome, "wherefore didst thou speak to Keren as thou didst this morning?" "I spake to Happuch," saith my wife, "because I did choose so to do. And as for the why o' that wherefore, though thou shouldst smirk till doomsday like a dog scratching his ear, ne'er wilt thou get it out o' me!" Then saith I, being justly angered, as I think thou wilt admit, comrade--saith I, "Thou art welcome to keep thy counsel!" saith I. And I followed the example set me by my vixen, and did spend more than half the night at this very tavern. Well, the next morning, as I did pass out on my way to my forge, whom should I see in the garden but my Keren and Master Robert Hacket! and if e'er a woman was possessed o' a devil, 'twas just that lass o' mine then, comrade. She had caused young Hacket to climb up into a pear-tree, and while that he was up there she did bear away the ladder by which he had mounted, and she saith to him, "Now, Master Robin, I am going to sing thee a song. Wilt thou listen?" "With all my heart," saith he. So he leaned on his elbow, stretched out like a young panther along the limb o' th' tree, and looked down on her. Now, as I live, down went that jade on her knees in the grass, and she lifts up her two pretty hands to him as though in prayer, and thus sings she (I knew the song by heart):