"You," repeated the eveningingale. "Did you not look at that man underthe wall? He had a gun; we should have been dead but for you. Wewill come and sing to you all evening long, since you like it; andwhen we go to bed at dawn, I will tell my cousins, the thrushesand merles, to take our places, so that you shall hear somebodysinging near you all the day long."

Lampblack was silent.

His heart was too full to speak.

Was it possible that he was of use, after all?