"'Are you sure nobody is awake?'
"'No, everyone is asleep.'
"'How about the old Knacker?'
"'He is drunk by this time and so deaf besides that he could not even hear the blast of a trumpet.'
"At last they finished what they were about, poured the mess into a large dish, and the pair of them came back again into the room. And there was I standing in the midst of it! It had the effect upon them of a thunderbolt. The old woman let fall the dish and the young one rushed at me like a maniac:
"'You deaf hog, you! what have you done with the child?'
"'Don't bawl so loudly, my good woman,' I said. 'I can hear you just as well if you speak softly.'
"'What have you done with the child?'
"'Don't be uneasy about it, it is in a safe place.'
"'You old fool, you; you will bring the whole lot of us to ruin. Do you know what you are doing?'