Prev | Current Page 146 | Next

Ferrar, William J.

"More English Fairy Tales"

"
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.


Pages:
134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158