e 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 lookout, 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.

[Illustration: THE SHOE IN THE ROAD]

'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 and 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 t