ill him!" And then they all started
a-crying worse than before.

But the gentleman burst out a-laughing, and reached up and pulled out
the mallet, and then he said: "I've traveled many miles, and I never met
three such big sillies as you three before; and now I shall start out on
my travels again, and when I can find three bigger sillies than you
three, then I'll come back and marry your daughter." So he wished them
good-bye, and started off on his travels, and left them all crying
because the girl had lost her sweetheart.

Well, he set out, and he traveled a long way, and at last he came to a
woman's cottage that had some grass growing on the roof. And the woman
was trying to get her cow to go up a ladder to the grass, and the poor
thing durst not go. So the gentleman asked the woman what she was doing.
"Why, lookye," she said, "look at all that beautiful grass. I'm going to
get the cow on to the roof to eat it. She'll be quite safe, for I shall
tie a string round her neck, and pass it down the chimney, and tie it to
my wrist as I go about the house, so she can't fall off without my
knowing it."

"Oh, you poor silly!" said the gentleman, "you should cut the grass and
throw it down to the cow!" But the woman thought it was easier to get
the cow up the ladder than to get the grass down, so she pushed her and
coaxed her and got her up, and tied a string round her neck, and passed
it down the chimney, and fastened it to her own wrist. And the gentleman
went on his way, but he hadn't gone far when the cow tumbled off the
roof, and hung by the string tied round her neck, and it strangled her.
And the weight of the cow tied to her wrist pulled the woman up the
chimney, and she stuck fast half-way and was smothered in the soot.

Well, that was one big silly.

And the gentleman went on and on, and he went to an inn to stop the
night, and they were so full at the inn that they had to put him in a
double-bedded room, and another traveller was to sleep in the other bed.
The other man was a very pleasant fellow, and they got very friendly
together; but in the morning, when they were both getting up, the
gentleman was surprised to see the other hang his trousers on the knobs
of the chest of drawers and run across the room and try to jump into
them, and he tried over and over again, and couldn't manage it; and the
gentleman wondered whatever he was doing it for. At last he stopped and
wiped his face with his handkerchief. "Oh, d