And when I spake of going, my townsmen said me nay.

'Twas quite as bad, they vowed, as if the priest should suddenly desert his parish, with none to shepherd his abandoned flock.

'Who'll cheer us in our doldrums ?' they demanded.
'Who'll help us bear our troubles by making us forget them?
Thou canst not leave us, Piper, until some other merry soul comes by to set our feet a-dancing.' Now thou art come." "Yes, _I_! A merry soul indeed!" Aldebaran cried in bitterness.
"Well, maybe not quite that," his host admitted.

"But thou couldst pass as one.

Thou couldst at least put on my grotesque garb, couldst learn the quips and quirks by which I make men laugh.