"Alas!" said the mother, "the trivet is lost. What a simpleton you are to talk to a piece of iron as if it had life. You should have put it in your sack and carried it on your shoulders." "Well, mother," answered Loony John, "another time I shall know what to do." One day Loony John's mother concluded to celebrate the birthday of her oldest daughter, and some wine was needed for the invited guests, and Loony John was sent after it to a neighboring village. As he was returning, he remembered what his mother said about putting the trivet in a sack. "Oh—ho!" he cried. "I was about to make a serious blunder. If I carry this wine to the house in a jug they will scold me. If a trivet should be put in a sack why not the wine!" So he poured it into his sack. "Where is the wine?" he was asked when he returned home. "I had no sooner put it in the sack than it ran away on all sides." "Did you not have a jug?" "Certainly." "What a misfortune!" his mother said. "You should have carried it on your head." Loony John said he would do better next time. Not long after this, he was sent for a servant who had been engaged to watch the young turkeys. "This time," said Loony John, "I shall be careful to make no mistake." He soon found the servant, who was a young girl, and said to her: "We have no time to lose. Let us be off. Come! get on my head and let's go." "Oh, I thank you, sir," the young girl answered, laughingly. "You are too good. I can walk very well on my feet." But Loony John was not to be put off in this way. He remembered that he had been told to carry the wine on his head, and as the new servant showed no inclination to obey him he gave her a terrible beating. She fell almost lifeless by the roadside. "Oh—ho!" cried Loony John, "you think you will have me scolded again to-day; but I am not so fond of a scolding, I can assure you." Without delay he placed the poor girl on his head and carried her home, where he arrived well-nigh exhausted. "What is it you have there?" his mother cried. "It is our new servant I bring you." "Oh, what an unhappy creature I am!" exclaimed the mother. She hastened to put the servant to bed. The poor girl's arms were broken and her shoulders bruised. During the fortnight that followed, Loony John was sent on no errands. But the servant girl grew steadily worse, and one morning the doctor had to be sent for. There was no one to go but Loony John, and accordingly he was sent. "Ask for only one," his mother cautioned him. "Have no fear," answered Loony John, and he went on his way yelling as loud as he could: "Let only one come! Let only one come!" The road led by a river, and as Loony John was going along, he saw a fisherman who, since early morning, had been throwing out his line without success. Loony John's song did not please him. "Silly scamp!" he exclaimed, "say 'Let a thousand come!' if you want to save your bones." Immediately Loony John cried out: