“If your Majesty will graciously rise with the sun, and ride along with him until the next morning he rise, your Grace will surely have ridden it round.”

“By St. John,” laughed King John, “I did not think it could be done so soon.  But let that pass, and tell me question third and last, and that is—­What do I think?”

“That is easy, your Grace,” said he.  “Your Majesty thinks I am my lord the Abbot of Canterbury; but as you may see,” and here he raised his cowl, “I am but his poor shepherd, that am come to ask your pardon for him and for me.”

Loud laughed the King.  “Well caught.  Thou hast more wit than thy lord, and thou shalt be Abbot in his place.”

“Nay, that cannot be,” quoth the shepherd; “I know not to write nor to read.”

“Well, then, four nobles a week thou shalt have for the ready wit.  And tell the Abbot from me that he has my pardon.”  And with that King John sent away the shepherd with a right royal present, besides his pension.

Rushen Coatie

There was once a king and a queen, as many a one has been; few have we seen, and as few may we see.  But the queen died, leaving only one bonny girl, and she told her on her death-bed:  “My dear, after I am gone, there will come to you a little red calf, and whenever you want anything, speak to it, and it will give it you.”

Now, after a while, the king married again an ill-natured wife, with three ugly daughters of her own.  And they hated the king’s daughter because she was so bonny.  So they took all her fine clothes away from her, and gave her only a coat made of rushes.  So they called her Rushen Coatie, and made her sit in the kitchen nook, amid the ashes.  And when dinner-time came, the nasty stepmother sent her out a thimbleful of broth, a grain of barley, a thread of meat, and a crumb of bread.  But when she had eaten all this, she was just as hungry as before, so she said to herself:  “Oh! how I wish I had something to eat.”  Just then, who should come in but a little red calf, and said to her:  “Put your finger into my left ear.”  She did so, and found some nice bread.  Then the calf told her to put her finger into its right ear, and she found there some cheese, and made a right good meal of the bread and cheese.  And so it went on from day to day.

Now the king’s wife thought Rushen Coatie would soon die from the scanty food she got, and she was surprised to see her as lively and healthy as ever.  So she set one of her ugly daughters on the watch at meal times to find out how Rushen Coatie got enough to live on.  The daughter soon found out that the red calf gave food to Rushen Coatie, and told her mother.  So her mother went to the king and told him she was longing to have a sweetbread from a red calf.  Then the king sent for his butcher, and had the little red calf killed.  And when Rushen Coatie heard of it, she sate down and wept by its side, but the dead calf said: