The new cobbler immediately took him into
partnership; the greatest people sent him their
shoes to mend. Fairfeather, a beautiful village
maiden, smiled graciously upon him; and in the
course of that summer they were married, with a
grand wedding feast, at which the whole village
danced except Spare, who was not invited, because
the bride could not bear his low-mindedness,
and his brother thought him a disgrace to the
family.
As for Scrub he established himself with
Fairfeather in a cottage close by that of the new
cobbler, and quite as fine. There he mended shoes to
everybody's satisfaction, had a scarlet coat and a
fat goose for dinner on holidays. Fairfeather, too,
had a crimson gown, and fine blue ribbons; but
neither she nor Scrub was content, for to buy this
grandeur the golden leaf had to be broken and
parted With piece by piece, so the last morsel was
gone before the cuckoo came with another.
Spare lived on in the old hut, and worked in the
cabbage-garden. (Scrub had got the barley-field
because he was the elder.) Every day his coat
grew more ragged, and the hut more weather-
beaten; but people remarked that he never
looked sad or sour. And the wonder was that,
from the time any one began to keep his company,
he or she grew kinder, happier, and content.
Every first of April the cuckoo came tapping at
their doors with the golden leaf for Scrub, and the
green for Spare.
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