ne who killed a raven would get a fourpenny bit.
At last you would not find man or boy without a gun, nor, if you were to
walk three miles, a raven that was not killed. I had to make a nest in
the top of the parlour chimney, and hide myself all day till night came,
and go out to pick up a bit to support me, till I spent a month. Here
she is herself (to say) if it is a lie I am telling.

"It is not," said she.

Then I saw her out walking. I went up to her, and I thought she would
turn me back to my own shape, and she struck me with the rod and made of
me an old white horse, and she ordered me to be put to a cart with a man
to draw stones from morning till night. I was worse off then. She
spread abroad a report that I had died suddenly in my bed, and prepared
a coffin, and waked me, and buried me. Then she had no trouble. But when
I got tired, I began to kill everyone who came near me, and I used to go
into the haggard every night and destroy the stacks of corn; and when a
man came near me in the morning, I would follow him till I broke his
bones. Everyone got afraid of me. When she saw I was doing mischief, she
came to meet me, and I thought she would change me. And she did change
me, and made a fox of me. When I saw she was doing me every sort of
damage, I went away from her. I knew there was a badger's hole in the
garden, and I went there till night came, and I made great slaughter
among the ducks and geese. There she is herself to say if I am telling a
lie.

"Oh, you are telling nothing but the truth, only less than the truth."

When she had enough of my killing the fowl, she came out into the
garden, for she knew I was in the badger's hole. She came to me, and
made me a wolf. I had to be off, and go to an island, where no one at
all would see me, and now and then I used to be killing sheep, for there
were not many of them, and I was afraid of being seen and hunted; and so
I passed a year, till a shepherd saw me among the sheep, and a pursuit
was made after me. And when the dogs came near me, there was no place
for me to escape to from them; but I recognised the sign of the King
among the men, and I made for him, and the King cried out to stop the
hounds. I took a leap upon the front of the King's saddle, and the woman
behind cried out, "My King and my lord, kill him, or he will kill you."

"Oh, he will not kill me. He knew me; and must be pardoned."

And the King took me home with him, and gave orders that I sho