Billy looked hard at Gehsundheit to see if he was joking, but he looked so seriously well pleased with himself that Billy did not have the heart to argue further. "And what do you want now?" said Gehsundheit "Nothing," said Billy. "You shall haf it at once," said Gehsundheit. "It iss a hard task you ask of me, but you shall haf it." "But I said nothing," said Billy. "Exactly--but fear not----" and spinning around on one toe, waving his arms above his head and ending by kissing his fingers, Gehsundheit rolled up his sleeves and said, "You vill notice dat I haf no cuffs to deceive you--and yet de hand is quicker as de eye--mumbo, Jumbo, zip, boom, rah--it iss here." And reaching out he caught a handful of air, gravely handed it to Billy and disappeared. CHAPTER IX. IN SILLY LAND. It was afternoon, and Billy was resting in the shade of the Singing Tree while Barker played about at his side. He was laughing softly to himself over his experience with Gehsundheit that morning. "He's a funny little fellow--calls himself a hero. Ha! ha! ha!" "Woof, woof, woof!" said Barker, and Billy looked up just in time to see him rush madly at a man and try to bury his teeth in his leg. I say try, because if there was ever a surprised dog in all the world that dog was Barker. Billy could hear his teeth grit and scrape on the man's leg, but he made no more impression on it than if it had been made of stone; and that's not strange, because it _was_ stone. Barker opened his jaws, ran back a few feet, stared at the man's leg, then up at his face, tucked his little button of a tail between his legs, gave one yelp of terror, and leaped into Billy's arms. It is hard to tell whether it was surprise at his failure or the man's face that frightened Barker--perhaps it was both. Certainly the face was enough to frighten any well-brought-up dog. He was made entirely of stone; even his constant smile showed the chisel marks; but his head was the oddest part of him--just one straight line from the tip of his nose to the top of his head. "Hello! where did you come from?" asked Billy. "From the quarry," said the man. "I'm an Aztec Fragment. Can't you tell that from my well-chiseled features? He-he-he! That's a good, silly joke, isn't it? You see: stone--my well-chiseled features--stone chiseled. He-he-he!" "Who is that back of you?" "That's my sister, Her Terics. I'm His Terics. Does your dog bite?" said the Fragment, and he and his sister burst into gales of laughter. [Illustration: _The Aztec Fragments: His Terics and Her Terics._] "Sometimes, when he's hungry," said Billy, knowing that they were making fun of him; "but he's not very fond of stone legs." "He-he! that's funny. He ought to eat stone; it would give him grit." "I don't see anything funny about that." "Neither do I, but it is silly, isn't it?" said the man, and he and his sister giggled harder than ever. "Well, of all the Sillies I ever saw," said Billy in disgust.