s mother, "for certain 't will be a strange
and good thing fur thee, if thou canst buy a pottle o' brains, and be
able to look after thy own self."

So he killed his pig, and next day off he went to the wise woman's
cottage, and there she sat, reading in a great book.

"Gode'en, missis," says he, "I've brought thee the heart o' the thing I
like the best of all; and I put it hapt in paper on the table."

"Aye so?" says she, and looked at him through her spectacles. "Tell me
this then, what runs without feet?"

He scratched his head, and thought, and thought, but he couldn't tell.

"Go thy ways," says she, "thou 'st not fetched me the right thing yet.
I've no brains for thee to-day." And she clapt the book together, and
turned her back.

So off the fool went to tell his mother. But as he got nigh the house,
out came folk running to tell him that his mother was dying.

And when he got in, his mother only looked at him and smiled as if to
say she could leave him with a quiet mind since he had got brains enough
now to look after himself--and then she died.

So down he sat and the more he thought about it the badder he felt. He
minded how she'd nursed him when he was a tiddy brat, and helped him
with his lessons, and cooked his dinners, and mended his clouts, and
bore with his foolishness; and he felt sorrier and sorrier, while he
began to sob and greet.

"Oh, mother, mother!" says he, "who'll take care of me now? Thou
shouldn't have left me alone, for I liked thee better than everything!"

And as he said that, he thought of the words of the wise woman. "Hi,
yi!" says he, "must I take mother's heart to her?"

"No! I can't do that," says he. "What'll I do? what'll I do to get that
pottle o' brains, now I'm alone in the world?" So he thought and thought
and thought, and next day he went and borrowed a sack, and bundled his
mother in, and carried it on his shoulder up to the wise woman's
cottage.

"Gode'en, missis," says he, "I reckon I've fetched thee the right thing
this time, surely," and he plumped the sack down kerflap! in the
doorsill.

"Maybe," says the wise woman, "but read me this, now, what's yellow and
shining but isn't gold?"

And he scratched his head, and thought and thought, but he couldn't
tell.

"Thou 'st not hit the right thing, my lad," says she. "I doubt thou 'rt
a bigger fool than I thought!" and shut the door in his face.

"See there!" says he, and set down by the road side and greets.