trouble."

"You help me!" cried the abbot "How? how?"

"Well," answered the shepherd, "you know that everybody says that I
look just like you, and that I have some-times been mis-tak-en for
you. So, lend me your servants and your horse and your gown, and I
will go up to London and see the king. If nothing else can be done, I
can at least die in your place."

"My good shepherd," said the abbot, "you are very, very kind; and I
have a mind to let you try your plan. But if the worst comes to the
worst, you shall not die for me. I will die for myself."

So the shepherd got ready to go at once. He dressed himself with
great care. Over his shepherd's coat he threw the abbot's long gown,
and he bor-rowed the abbot's cap and golden staff. When all was ready,
no one in the world would have thought that he was not the great man
himself. Then he mounted his horse, and with a great train of servants
set out for London.

Of course the king did not know him.

"Welcome, Sir Abbot!" he said. "It is a good thing that you have come
back. But, prompt as you are, if you fail to answer my three
questions, you shall lose your head."

"I am ready to answer them, O king!" said the shepherd.

"Indeed, indeed!" said the king, and he laughed to himself. "Well,
then, answer my first question: How long shall I live? Come, you must
tell me to the very day."

"You shall live," said the shepherd, "until the day that you die, and
not one day longer. And you shall die when you take your last breath,
and not one moment before."

The king laughed.

"You are witty, I see," he said. "But we will let that pass, and say
that your answer is right. And now tell me how soon I may ride round
the world."

[Illustration: "You shall live until the day that you die."]

"You must rise with the sun," said the shepherd, "and you must ride
with the sun until it rises again the next morning. As soon as you do
that, you will find that you have ridden round the world in
twenty-four hours."

The king laughed again. "Indeed," he said, "I did not think that it
could be done so soon. You are not only witty, but you are wise, and
we will let this answer pass. And now comes my third and last
question: What do I think?"

"That is an easy question," said the shepherd. "You think that I am
the Abbot of Can-ter-bur-y. But, to tell you the truth, I am only his
poor shepherd, and I have come to beg your pardon for him and for me."
And with that, he threw off his lo