BILLY BISPIOP. 29 



Billy, with great good humor, joined the party just in time 

 to help haul on the line as the seine boat reached the 

 shore, fully convinced that, while spooks might tempor- 

 arily annoy him, he could triumph over them in the end. 

 Old Vose, who played the clarionette in the band on top 

 of Fly's "headquarters," heard of it, and got Billy to re- 

 peat the verse which could so undo the work of witches ; 

 and as neither Billy nor he could write, Bill Fairchild vol- 

 unteered to act as amanuensis, and what he wrote no man 

 knows, for when Vose asked his landlady to read it for 

 him she became angry and burned the paper. No doubt 

 but her method was a good one, for no one ever heard 

 that Billy's boat was ever bewitched again. 



Poor old Billy! He died after I left the place, and is 

 remembered by very few. Spooks can no longer chase 

 him at night, grease his fiddle-bow, nor obstruct his boat. 

 The hills have at last come together above him, but he is 

 safe. 



