on't mind trying,' answered the Black Gallows Bird;
'and, of course, if ANY one can turn him into a first-rate thief, it
is I. But if he is stupid, it is of no use at all; I can't bear stupid
people.'

'No, he isn't stupid,' said the woman with a sigh. 'So to-night, after
dark, I will send him to you.'

The Shifty Lad jumped for joy when his mother told him where she had
been.

'I will become the best thief in all Erin!' he cried, and paid no heed
when his mother shook her head and murmured something about 'the bridge
of Dublin.'

Every evening after dark the Shifty Lad went to the home of the Black
Gallows Bird, and many were the new tricks he learned. By-and-by he was
allowed to go out with the Bird and watch him at work, and at last there
came a day when his master though that he had grown clever enough to
help in a big robbery.

'There is a rich farmer up there on the hill, who has just sold all his
fat cattle for much money and has bought some lean ones which will cost
him little. Now it happens that, while he has received the money for the
fat cattle, he has not yet paid the price of the thin ones, which he has
in the cowhouse. To-morrow he will go to the market with the money in
his hand, so to-night we must get at the chest. When all is quiet we
will hide in the loft.'

There was no moon, and it was the night of Hallowe'en, and everyone
was burning nuts and catching apples in a tub of water with their hands
tied, and playing all sorts of other games, till the Shifty Lad grew
quite tired of waiting for them to get to bed. The Black Gallows Bird,
who was more accustomed to the business, tucked himself up on the hay
and went to sleep, telling the boy to wake him when the merry-makers had
departed. But the Shifty Lad, who could keep still no longer, crept down
to the cowshed and loosened the heads of the cattle which were tied, and
they began to kick each other and bellow, and made such a noise that the
company in the farmhouse ran out to tie them up again. Then the Shifty
Lad entered the room and picked up a big handful of nuts, and returned
to the loft, where the Black Rogue was still sleeping. At first the
Shifty Lad shut his eyes too, but very soon he sat up, and taking a big
needle and thread from his pocket, he sewed the hem of the Black Gallows
Bird's coat to a heavy piece of bullock's hide that was hanging at his
back.

By this time the cattle were all tied up again, but as the people could
not fin