."

_4th Wrenboy_: William the First as the congereel
known....

_Guardian_: What is that? You would not do
it to vex me! Gillie is maybe right. There is
something strange.... (_To another_.) You may
try now. Go on to the next verse. "William
called Rufus from having red hair." ..._(He does
not answer_.) Say it anyone who knows....

_3rd Wrenboy: (Putting up his hand_.) I know
a man that has red hair!

_All the Wrenboys: (Cheerfully)_ So do I! So
do I!

_2nd Wrenboy_: He lives in the wood beyond!
He is no way good! He is an Ogre, a Grugach....

_1st Wrenboy_: He can turn himself into the shape
of a beast, or he can change his face at any time;
sometimes he'll be that wicked you would think
he was a wolf; he would skin you with his cat-o'-nine-tails!

_Guardian_: What gibberish are you talking?

_2nd Wrenboy_: He goes working underground to
get gold!

_3rd Wrenboy_: It is minded by enchanted cats!

_4th Wrenboy_: They would tear in bits anyone
that would find it!

_Guardian_: Now take care, lads, this is carrying
a joke too far. I was wrong to begin with that
silly history. Tell me out now the parts of speech.

"A noun's the name of anything
As school or garden, hoop or swing."

_5th Wrenboy_: An owl's the name of anything....

_Guardian_: A _noun_.

_5th Wrenboy_: An _owl_.

_Guardian_: Don't pretend you don't know it.

_5th Wrenboy_: I do know it. I know an owl
that sits in the cleft of the hollow sycamore and
eats its fill of mice, till it can hardly put a stir
out of itself.

_Guardian_: I do wish you would stop talking
nonsense.

_1st Wrenboy_: It is not, but sense. It devoured
ere yesterday a whole fleet of young rats.

_2nd Wrenboy_: It's as wise as King Solomon.

_Guardian_: Gillie was right. There is surely
something gone wrong in their heads.

_2nd Wrenboy_: Go out yourself and you'll see are
we wrong in the head! Inside in the old sycamore
he is sitting through the daylight.

_1st Dowager Messenger_: There is something gone
wrong in _somebody's_ head.

_2nd Dowager Messenger_: (_Tapping her forehead_.)
The poor Guardian; he is too long past his youth.
It is well we came to look how things were going
before it is too late.

_1st Dowager Messenger_: Ask them to say something
they _do_ know.

_Guardian_: Here, you're good at arithmetic, say
now your numbers.

_1st Wrenboy_: Twelve coppers make a shilling.
I never handled more than that.

_Guardian_: (_Angrily