"There was a merry party at the christening, and at first matters went on smoothly and comfortably enough; but as the eating, and drinking, and dancing advanced, quips and cranks became very plentiful, and the greater number, as might be expected, were flung, and not very lightly, at the head of poor Stringstriker. The fiddler for a time received his cuffs very manfully--but they grew intolerable at last. First, his legs were criticised--then his lank withered arms; even his fiddling was disparaged, and he himself pronounced highly indecorous, because he persisted in smoking his pipe all the while he scraped. "'Klaus, Klaus!' said the master of the house, his sides shaking with laughter, 'if you don't forswear smoking this very instant, your sponsorship sha'n't stand. As sure as my name is Twirling-stick Mike, I won't allow it; and the boy shall be called Michael after his father.' "Klaus laughed too, went on smoking, and tuned his fiddle. "'Did you hear what I said, you bandy-legged Dwarf-piper?' bawled Simon, in continuation. "Klaus laid his fiddle aside. "'Gossip!' said he, in a tone of meaning, 'keep within bounds--within bounds, I say--and don't force me for once to fiddle to an ugly tune. I am your boy's godfather; his name is Klaus, and Klaus he shall be called amongst my children!' "The whole company simultaneously broke out into loud laughter, and exclaimed with one voice-- "'Amongst his children!' "'Why, where have you left your respectable better-half, then?' asked Simon, 'and what wench ever gave herself up to two such noble shanks? Where, in Heaven's name, Klaus, was the parson ordained that trusted a poor woman to you for better or worse?' "The Dwarf smoked away, and could hardly be seen through the cloud that enveloped him. "'Idiots!' he murmured to himself, 'as if we lived like mere human Creatures'-- "'What's that you say?' asked Simon, interrupting him. 'Don't talk blasphemy, you heathenish imp, or'-- "'Be quiet, gossip!' returned the Dwarf, with a savage frown. 'Don't put me up, or I and my children may be troublesome to you and yours yet. You had better give me some more tobacco, for I love smoking, and so do my people!' "'If he isn't cracked, I am a Turk!' exclaimed Simon. 'Pride has turned that added head of his quite round. Well, Heaven preserve me from a cracked godfather, any how!' "'Body of me!' interposed an old boor, one of the party, 'what the crab says is true.' "'True!' said Simon.