gets from him two needles.  On his return home his mother asks him what he has got that day.  “Hay and needles,” says Matt.  Well! and what had he done with the hay?  “I put some of it in my mouth,” quoth he, “and as it tasted like grass, I threw it into the river.”  She says he ought to have spread it on the byre-floor.  “Very good,” replies the dutiful Matt; “I’ll remember that next time.”  And what had he done with the needles?  He stuck them into the hay.  “Ah,” says the mother, “you should rather have stuck them in and out of your cap, and brought them home to me.”  Well! well!  Matt will not forget to do so next time.  The following day a man comes to the bridge with a sack of meal and gives Matt a pound of it; then comes a smith, who gives him a gimlet:  the meal he spread on the byre-floor, and the gimlet he stuck in and out of his cap.  His mother tells him he should have come home for a bucket to hold the meal, and the gimlet he should have put up his sleeve.  Very good!  Matt will not forget next time.  Another day some men come to the bridge with kegs of brandy, of which Matt gets a pint, and pours it into his sleeve; next comes a man driving some goats and their young ones, and gives Matt a kid, which he treads down into a bucket.  His mother says he should have led the goat home with a cord round its neck, and put the brandy in a pail.  Next day he gets a pat of butter and drags it home with a string.  After this his mother despairs of his improvement, till it occurs to her that he might not be such a noodle if he had a wife.  So she bids him go and see whether he cannot find some lass who will take him for a husband.  Should he meet any folk on his way, he ought to say to them, “God’s peace!” Matt accordingly sets off in quest of a wife, and meets a she-wolf and her seven cubs.  “God’s peace!” says Matt, and then returns home.  When his mother learns of this, she tells him he should have cried, “Huf! huf! you jade wolf!” Next day he goes off again, and meeting a bridal party, he cries, “Huf! huf! you jade wolf!” and goes back to his mother and acquaints her of this fresh adventure.  “O you great silly!” says she; “you should have said, ’Ride happily, bride and bridegroom!’” Once more Matt sets out to seek a wife, and seeing on the road a bear taking a ride on a horse, he exclaims joyfully, “Ride happily, bride and bridegroom!” and then returns home.  His mother, on hearing of this new piece of folly, tells him he should have cried, “To the devil with you!” Again he sets out, and meeting a funeral procession, he roars, “To the devil with you!” His mother says he should have cried, “May your poor soul have mercy!” and sends him off for the fifth time to look for a lass.  On the road he sees some gipsies busy skinning a dead dog, upon which he piously exclaims, “May your poor soul have mercy!” His mother now goes herself to get him a wife, finds a lass that is willing to marry him, and invites her to dinner.  She privately tells Matt how he should comport himself in the presence of his sweetheart; he should cast an eye at her now and then.  Matt understands her instruction most literally:  stealing into the sheepfold, he plucks out the eyes of all the sheep and goats, and puts them in his pocket.  When he is seated beside his sweetheart, he casts a “sheep’s eye” at her, which hits her on the nose.[1]