"'I am not mad! I am not mad!' exclaimed Pate, in the bottom of the cart.
"'He is talking poetry,' said Brown. 'I heard my little boy speak that at school.'
"'My men,' said the doctor, 'whom have you got here? Why, it is Mr. Pate! When did he go mad?'
"'I am not mad! I am not mad!' piteously exclaimed poor Pate.
"'Don't you hear that, doctor?' said Jones. 'He is as crazy as an old cow with a wolf in her back!'
"'Who sent him here?' asked the doctor.
"The farmers now told their story.
"'My men,' said the doctor, 'I fear that you have acted without sufficient authority. Let me talk to Mr. Pate.'
"After a conversation with the unhappy captive, the doctor told his captors that they had better go home and attend to their own business; that Pate was not crazy, and might have every one of them prosecuted for a burglarious entry into his house in the night-time. When the farmers heard this they fled with precipitation, leaving their captive in the hands of the doctor, who unbound him and treated him kindly, and, after breakfast, loaned him a horse, on which he rode back to his home."
"What did Pate do after he was declared sane by the doctor and released from captivity?" asked the Professor.