Down came the switch on Jack.
"Jack, you vagabone, do you see what the cows are at?"
"And do you blame me, master?"
"To be sure, you lazy sluggard, I do."
"Hand me out one pound thirteen and fourpence, master. You said if I
only kept Browney out of mischief, the rest would, do no harm. There
she is as harmless as a lamb. Are you sorry for hiring me, master?"
"To be--that is, not at all. I'll give you your money when you go to
dinner. Now, understand me; don't let a cow go out of the field nor
into the wheat the rest of the day."
"Never fear, master!" and neither did he. But the churl would rather
than a great deal he had not hired him.
The next day three heifers were missing, and the master bade Jack go
in search of them.
"Where shall I look for them?" said Jack.
"Oh, every place likely and unlikely for them all to be in."
The churl was getting very exact in his words. When he was coming into
the yard at dinner time, what work did he find Jack at but pulling
armfuls of the thatch off the roof, and peeping into the holes he was
making.
"What are you doing there, you rascal?"
"Sure, I'm looking for the heifers, poor things!"
"What would bring them there?"
"I don't think anything could bring them in it; but I looked first
into the likely places, that is the cowhouses, and the pastures, and
the fields next 'em, and now I'm looking in the unlikeliest place I
can think of.
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