Chapter III

OW, as Johnny strutted along, he heard jolly music and wedding bells, and saw a multitude of people.

It was a wedding party, outside a tavern; and the fiddlers were fiddling, and everybody dancing.

Johnny Nut went through the middle of them all, shouting:--

‘_There’s another caught and done for!_’

‘Caught and done for! Meaning _me_!’ says the gay bridegroom; and he tucked up his shirtsleeves to give Johnny one in the eye. But the bridesmaid, who did not want a quarrel, gave Johnny a push, and said to him--

‘Idiot, say rather, “Let everybody follow a good example.”’

It was all one to Johnny, and off he went, shouting--

‘Let every one follow this good example!’

So he left the village, and he went, and went and better went, till he came to a house on fire.

The policeman had caught a poor tramp, whom he charged with burning the house.

‘_Let everyone follow this good example_!’ shouted Johnny, never thinking of anything but roast goose.

‘What’s that you say, you vagabond! You incite the populace to arson and fire-raising!’ cries the policeman, who was by way of being à great lawyer.

Johnny trembled like an aspen-leaf.

‘Say, “Heaven help you to put the fire out,”’ whispered one of the firemen; and Johnny said so, and off he went, the old way, crying--

‘_Heaven help you to put the fire out!_’

Now he passed a blacksmith’s forge, and that blacksmith was as cross as two sticks, for he had been blowing the bellows for three hours, and could not make the fire burn.

Well, just when a little tiny blue flame burst forth, as little as a pussycat’s tongue, what did the blacksmith hear but--

‘_Heaven put the fire out!_’

Round he turned, pitched his hammer at Johnny, and knocked him down flat on the king’s high way.