'"We're very grateful," Sir Huon said, "but we think that just for the present you are about too much with him on the Hill." '"Though you have said it," I said, "I will give you a second chance." I did not like being called to account for my doings on my own Hill. I wouldn't have stood it even that far except I loved the Boy. '"No! No!" says the Lady Esclairmonde. "He's never any trouble when he's left to me and himself. It's your fault." '"You have said it," I answered. "Hear me! From now on till the Boy has found his fortune, whatever that may be, I vow to you all on my Hill, by Oak, and Ash, and Thorn, _and_ by the Hammer of Asa Thor"'--again Puck made that curious double-cut in the air--'"that you may leave me out of all your counts and reckonings." Then I went out'--he snapped his fingers--'like the puff of a candle, and though they called and cried, they made nothing by it. I didn't promise not to keep an eye on the Boy, though. I watched him close--close--close! 'When he found what his people had forced me to do, he gave them a piece of his mind, but they all kissed and cried round him, and being only a boy, he came over to their way of thinking (I don't blame him), and called himself unkind and ungrateful; and it all ended in fresh shows and plays, and magics to distract him from folk in housen. Dear heart alive! How he used to call and call on me, and I couldn't answer, or even let him know that I was near!' 'Not even once?' said Una. 'If he was very lonely?' 'No, he couldn't,' said Dan, who had been thinking. 'Didn't you swear by the Hammer of Thor that you wouldn't, Puck?' 'By that Hammer!' was the deep rumbled reply. Then he came back to his soft speaking voice. 'And the Boy _was_ lonely, when he couldn't see me any more. He began to try to learn all learning (he had good teachers), but I saw him lift his eyes from the big black books towards folk in housen all the time. He studied song-making (good teacher she had too!), but he sung those songs with his back toward the Hill, and his face toward folk. _I_ know! I have sat and grieved over him grieving within a rabbit's jump of him. Then he studied the High, Low, and Middle Magic. He had promised the Lady Esclairmonde he would never go near folk in housen; so he had to make shows and shadows for his mind to chew on.' 'What sort of shows?' said Dan.