The Lilac Fairy Book | Page 8

shoe
down again and went on.
The Shifty Lad smiled as he heard him, and, picking up the shoe, he
crept round by a short way and laid the other shoe on the path. A few
minutes after the shepherd arrived, and beheld the second shoe lying on
the path.
'Why, that is the fellow of the dirty shoe!' he exclaimed when he saw it.
'I will go back and pick up the other one, and then I shall have a pair of
good shoes,' and he put the sheep on the grass and returned to fetch the
shoe. Then the Shifty Lad put on his shoes, and, picking up the sheep,
carried it home. And the Black Rogue paid him the hundred marks of
his wager.
When the shepherd reached the farmhouse that night he told his tale to
his master, who scolded him for being stupid and careless, and bade
him go the next day to the mountain and fetch him a kid, and he would
send that as a wedding gift. But the Shifty Lad was on the look-out, and
hid himself in the wood, and the moment the man drew near with the
kid on his shoulders began to bleat like a sheep, and no one, not even
the sheep's own mother, could have told the difference.
'Why, it must have got its feet loose, and have strayed after all,' thought
the man; and he put the kid on the grass and hurried off in the direction
of the bleating. Then the boy ran back and picked up the kid, and took
it to the Black Gallows Bird.
The shepherd could hardly believe his eyes when he returned from
seeking the sheep and found that the kid had vanished. He was afraid to

go home and tell the same tale that he had told yesterday; so he
searched the wood through and through till night was nearly come.
Then he felt that there was no help for it, and he must go home and
confess to his master.
Of course, the farmer was very angry at this second misfortune; but this
time he told him to drive one of the big bulls from the mountain, and
warned him that if he lost THAT he would lose his place also. Again
the Shifty Lad, who was on the watch, perceived him pass by, and
when he saw the man returning with the great bull he cried to the Black
Rogue:
'Be quick and come into the wood, and we will try to get the bull also.'
'But how can we do that?' asked the Black Rogue.
'Oh, quite easily! You hide yourself out there and baa like a sheep, and
I will go in the other direction and bleat like a kid. It will be all right, I
assure you.'
The shepherd was walking slowly, driving the bull before him, when he
suddenly heard a loud baa amongst the bushes far away on one side of
the path, and a feeble bleat answering it from the other side.
'Why, it must be the sheep and the kid that I lost,' said he. 'Yes, surely it
must'; and tying the bull hastily to a tree, he went off after the sheep
and the kid, and searched the wood till he was tired. Of course by the
time he came back the two thieves had driven the bull home and killed
him for meat, so the man was obliged to go to his master and confess
that he had been tricked again.
After this the Black Rogue and the Shifty Lad grew bolder and bolder,
and stole great quantities of cattle and sold them and grew quite rich.
One day they were returning from the market with a large sum of
money in their pockets when they passed a gallows erected on the top
of a hill.
'Let us stop and look at that gallows,' exclaimed the Shifty Lad. 'I have

never seen one so close before. Yet some say that it is the end of all
thieves.'
There was no one in sight, and they carefully examined every part of it.
'I wonder how it feels to be hanged,' said the Shifty Lad. 'I should like
to know, in case they ever catch me. I'll try first, and then you can do
so.'
As he spoke he fastened the loose cord about his neck, and when it was
quite secure he told the Black Rogue to take the other end of the rope
and draw him up from the ground.
'When I am tired of it I will shake my legs, and then you must let me
down,' said he.
The Black Rogue drew up the rope, but in half a minute the Shifty
Lad's legs began to shake, and