I cleared my throat and explained that I’d come here to settle in the village, since I’d been kicked out by my dad and had nowhere to live. He shrugged, and explained that if I wanted to settle here, I’d need to speak to the Council of Elders, and then he rode off. I didn’t know where to find the Council of Elders, at any rate. I went up the hill and higher into the village, and passed an elderly man who looked like a mad scientist with crazy hair. He was leaning on a black walking cane and despite that appeared not to be hunched over like you’d expect.

“Excuse me, sir,” I asked, in that pitiful, Oliver Twist-like tone, “do you know where I might be able to find the Council of Elders?”

He touched his chin in a very thoughtful position. “Hmm. You can’t contact the Council of Elders when you want to, but if my aging memory serves correctly, they’re having a meeting in the village hall. It would be best to go there. Why do you want to go there anyway?”

I explained my situation, and about how I wanted to find somewhere to live. He chuckled. “You’re going to need to be careful. They don’t just take in children, you know.”

He tipped a nonexistent hat and went about his day. I climbed up the hill, not even bothering to look around the village before deciding to stay there. I had no time for sightseeing – no, the village hall and the approval of the Council of Elders were all that mattered to me and nothing else. I found a rather broad building, painted white, which had a clock over the door, and a chimney in the middle of the roof. The sign outside advertised it to be the Village Hall, so I immediately went inside.

I found myself in a long broad room, with benches on either side of it, on which people were seated, before a table wherein two elderly men and one elderly woman were seated. They were dressed in their best clothes – a funerary black – and they all wore enormous black spectacles. The gaunt man in the middle had a beaklike nose and a craned neck, which made him look more like a vulture than a human being. The man on his right had a thick mane of white hair, and a thick walrus moustache, and his eyes looked very fierce. The elderly woman on their left also had a beaklike nose, but she looked far thinner than either of them.

One of them addressed me. It was the man in the middle, the one who looked like a vulture. “What are you doing here, boy?” he snapped, speaking in a raspy voice that almost made me jump. “Don’t you know that it is inappropriate to enter the village hall during a meeting?”

“I don’t. Even so, I need to talk to the Council of Elders at once. It’s urgent. If any of you know where they are, you’ll be in trouble if you don’t let me speak to them.”

The man cleared his throat. “We are they. I am Elder Simonson, and my two colleagues on the left and right of me are Elder Willoughby and Elder Jones. We are the ones who make the important decisions here.”

I cleared my throat. “Villagers, Elders, I need your help. I’ve run away from home and I’ve got nowhere to live, and I don’t care how young I am, I need to do something to earn my keep around here. Whatever the rent is around here, I’m sure I can afford it. Please let me live with you.”

It was Elder Jones who spoke next. “We don’t take in strays,” she said, in a very stern, nasally tone of voice.

I cleared my throat. “If you agree to take me in, and provide me with room and board, I’ll run errands around the village on your behalf. I can cook, and I can clean and do all sorts of things kids my age can’t do.”

The Council of Elders looked to each other curiously. I couldn’t help but notice that their expressions bore some kind of glee, as if they’d reached an opportunity for something. Elder Simonson cleared his throat and spoke next. “You’ve persuaded us, boy. Even though we think it illegal that you should lodge here, we will let you stay within our village and earn your keep by doing everything for us. We have also decided where you will stay, and that is with our handyman, Clarence. He is here now.” Elder Willoughby cleared his throat and in a booming voice commanded Clarence to come forth. I wondered if Clarence would turn out to be a big strong man, with rippling muscles and a thick handlebar moustache, like those circus strongmen I’d often seen in the illustrations.

But Clarence turned out to actually be a thin and wiry little man, somewhere close to middle age. His hair was greying, and wrinkles were beginning to show on either side of his bulbous nose. He was dressed in a pair of blue overalls, and atop his head he wore a flat cap. He put his hands together and bowed modestly before the council of elders.

“Y-y-yes, sirs and ma’am!” he addressed the Council.

Elder Simonson explained the situation to him, and he agreed that he would gladly take me to his house. He also wished to see whatever luggage I’d brought with me. “I’m sorry,” I said, “but I’m everything I brought with me, sir. I didn’t pack anything but the clothes on my back.”

For a moment Clarence looked somewhat awkward. I could tell that he wasn’t sure what to do about my lack of possessions. My own resolve to stay here began to waver, and I waited to figure out how to respond. He was shaking in some sort of strange manner – later, I learned it was the product of neurosis, but eventually he composed himself, and said, “W-W-Well, I s-s-s-suppose s-s-something can be ar-r-r-r-ranged. P-p-please f-f-follow me, and we’ll h-h-have you set up in your n-n-new home.”