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THE WINE-CELLAR. 133
then ; and at last heard how, finding nothing remarkable
except the best wine running to waste, they all turned on
the butler, and accused him of having fooled them with a
drunken dream. He did his best to defend himself,
appealing to the evidence of their own senses that he was
as sober as they were. They replied that a fright was no
less a fright that the cause was imaginary, and a dream
no less a dream that the fright had waked him from it.
When he discovered, and triumphantly adduced as
corroboration, that the key was gone from the door, they
said it merely showed how drunk he had been—either
that or how frightened, for he had certainly dropped it.
In vain he protested that he had never taken it out of the
lock—that he never did when he went in, and certainly
had not this time stopped to do so when he came out;
they asked him why he had to go to the cellar at such a
time of the day, and said it was because he had already
drunk all the wine that was left from dinner. He said if he
had dropped the key, the key was to be found, and they
must help him to find it They told him they wouldn't
move a peg for him. He declared, with much language,
he would have them all turned out of the king's service.
They said they would swear he was drunk. And so
positive were they about it, that at last the butler himself
began to think whether it was possible they could be in
the right. For he knew that sometimes when he had
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