m to tech him that connyng. _Nay_, quod the herdman, I wyll
not tech you my connynge for nought. Then _the skoler_ profferyde hym xl
shyllyngs to teche hym that connynge. The herd_man, after_ he had
reseyuyd hys money, sayd thus: syr, se you not yonder _blacke_ ewe with
the whyte face? Yes, quod the skoler. Suerly, quod the herdman, when she
daunsith and holdeth up her tayle, ye shall haue a showre of rayn within
half an howre after.[128]

By this ye may se, that the connyng of herdmen and shepardes, as
touchinge alteracyons of weders, is more sure than the iudicials of
astronomy.

FOOTNOTES:

[126] Orig. reads _which came_.

[127] Singer's conjectural reading is _that_; but _and_ seems to me to
be the word required.

+ _Of hym that sayde: I shall haue nener a peny._ lxxxiii.

+ In a certayne towne, there was a rych man that lay on his deth bed at
poynte of deth, whyche chargyd hys executours to dele[129] for hys soule
a certayne some of money in pence, and on thys condicion chargyd them as
they would answere afore God, that euery pore man that cam to them and
told a trew tale shulde haue a peny, and they that said a fals thing
shuld haue none; and in the dole-tyme there cam one whych sayd that God
was a good man. Quod the executours: thou shalt haue a peny, for thou
saist trouth. Anone came a nother and said, the deuil was a good man.
Quod the executours: there thou lyest; therefore thou shalt haue nere a
peny. At laste came on[e] to the executors and said thus: ye shall gyue
me nere a peny: which wordes made the executors amasyd, and toke
aduysment whyther they shuld * * * *

_The end of this tale is wanting._

FOOTNOTES:

[128] See _Scoggin's Jests_(reprint 1795), p. 47.

[129] Count out.

+ _Of the husbande that sayde hys wyfe and he agreed well._ lxxxiv.

_Too imperfect to decypher._

+ _Of the prest that sayde Comede episcope._ lxxxv.

+ In the tyme of visitacyon a bysshoppe, whi_che was maryed_[130] and
had gote many chyldren, prepared to questyon a preest what rule he
kepte, whiche preest had a le_man_ * * * * * and by her had two or thre
small chyldren. In shorte _tyme before the Bys_shoppes commynge, he
prepared a rowme to hyde his _leman and children_ ouer in the rofe of
his hall; and whan the bysshoppe was _come and discoursing_ with him in
the same hall, hauynge x of his owne chyldren about him, _the preest_,
who coude speke lytell lytyn or none, bad the bysshoppe