"Let a thousand come! Let a thousand come!" He went on and came to a wood where a shepherd was struggling with a fierce-looking wolf. The contest seemed to interest him. He sat down quietly on a stone and awaited results. The struggle was long and furious, but the man at last overpowered the beast, and the wolf fell mortally wounded. While the shepherd was recovering from his exertions he heard a strange refrain. Loony John was yelling: "Let a thousand come! Let a thousand come!" The shepherd rose to his feet, furious. "You young rascal! Say, rather, 'May the Imp seize him!'" At once Loony John took up the new refrain and went on his way crying: "May the Imp seize him! May the Imp seize him!" Presently he met a funeral procession, but he still continued his cry. "Will you hush?" said one in the procession. "If you must go yelling along the road, cry out, 'May the Lord protect him!'" Loony John was willing—none more so—and very soon the echoes were repeating: "May the Lord protect him! May the Lord protect him!" At the entrance of the village where the doctor lived, a house was on fire, and a crowd of people were trying to put it out. Some wicked person had set it on fire and he had been caught. He was safely tied, and those who were not helping to put out the fire were engaged in jeering and insulting the wicked incendiary. Loony John also wanted to see the culprit, but for fear he would forget what he had been told to say, he kept on repeating: "May the Lord protect him! May the Lord protect him!" The crowd was indignant, and on all sides were heard cries of "Here is his accomplice!" Immediately Loony John was seized and beaten, and, in spite of his tears and entreaties, was thrown into prison. How he escaped need not be told. There is an old saying, "A fool for luck!" and it is a true one. Loony John got back home somehow. Some time afterward Easter Sunday came, and when Loony John's mother started to church she said: "Above all things, don't forget to put the hen in the stew-pan." "I will certainly do that," he answered. The good woman went off, leaving Loony John very much perplexed. He did not know which hen his mother wanted. So, after thinking the matter over, he went into the hen-house and said: "Which one of you is to be cooked for dinner?" "Cluck—cluck—cluck!" answered a setting hen. "Pshaw! don't talk Dutch!" protested Loony John; "I can't understand you." "Cluck—cluck—cluck!" said the setting hen. Loony John was more puzzled than ever, but he repeated the question: "Answer! Which one of you is to be eaten for dinner to-day?" By this time the frightened chickens had all run out of the house into the garden, leaving only the old setting hen who had been answering Loony John in Dutch. "Oh! you are the one! Very well!" Loony John seized her and put her in the stew-pan alive. Then he began to think, and he remembered that the eggs were not hatched and that the nest was without a hen.