True! I am nervous, very, very nervous. I have always been nervous. But why do you say that I am mad? My senses are sharper than ever. Above all, my hearing is very sharp. I can hear everything in heaven and on earth. So how can I be mad? Listen, and see how calmly I can tell you the whole story.

I lived in a house with an old man. I loved the old man. He never did anything wrong to me. He never insulted me. I did not want his gold. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! One of his eyes was like the eye of a vulture. It was pale blue, with a thin film over it. Whenever it looked at me, my blood went cold.

Little by little, I decided to free myself from the eye forever. Now this is the point. You think that I am mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should see me! You should see how wisely I worked, how carefully, how patiently.

I was never kinder to the old man than during the week before. Every night, at about midnight, I turned the handle of his door and opened it very, very slowly. Then I put my lantern into the room. It was closed, so no light came out. Then I pushed my head in, very slowly, so I did not wake the old man. It took me an hour to put my whole head inside the room. Would a madman be so careful?

Then I opened the lantern a tiny bit, so only one thin ray of light fell on the vulture eye. I did this for seven long nights. But the eye was always closed, so I could not do my work. It was not the old man who troubled me. It was his Evil Eye. And every morning I went to his room and spoke to him kindly, and asked him how he had slept.