had only fallen into the hands of thegood-folk; but all day long she sat and
cried, "I fastened on his cap of moonshine, and I tied up his tongue; and for
all that he has gone away and left me!" And so she cried until her child was
born and named Little Toonie in memory of his lost father.

After a while people, looking at him, began to shake their heads; for as he
grew older it became apparent that his tongue was tied, seeing that he
remained quite dumb in spite of all that was done to teach him; and his head
was full of moonshine, so that he could understand nothing clearly by
day--only as night came on his wits gathered, and he seemed to find a meaning
for things. And some said it was his mother's fault, and some that it was his
father's, and some that he was a changeling sent by the fairies, and that the
real child had been taken to share his father's bondage. But which of these
things was true Little Toonie himself had no idea.

After a time Little Toonie began to grow big, as is the way with children, and
at last he became bigger than ever old Toonie had been. But folk still called
him Little Toonie, because his head was so full of moonshine; and his mother,
finding he was no good to her, sold him to the farmer, by whom, since he had
no wits for anything better, he was set to pull at waggon and plough just as
if he were a cart-horse; and, indeed, he was almost as strong as one. To make
him work, carter and ploughman used to crack their whips over his back; and
Little Toonie took it as the most natural thing in the world, because his
brain was full of moonshine, so that he understood nothing clearly by day.

But at night he would lie in his stable among the horses, and wonder about the
moonlight that stretched wide over all the world and lay free on the bare tops
of the hills; and he thought--would it not be good to be there all alone, with
the moonbeams laying their white hands down on his head? And so it came that
one night, finding the door of his stable unlocked, he ran out into the open