Jack the Cunning Thief = 15

“T’ll try,” says Jack, and away he went into the wood.

The farmér:was. about the spot where he saw the first
‘brogue, when; he heard the bleating of a goat. ote aD his
right in the wood. ee

He cocked his ears, and the next thing :he ee “was
the maaing of a sheep. eae Cea

“Blood alive!” says he, “maybe these are my own
that I lost.” There was more bleating and more maaing.
“ There they are as sure as a gun,” says he, and he tied
his bullock to a sapling that grew in the hedge, and away
he went into the wood. When he got near the place where
the cries came from, he heard them a little before him, and
on he followed them.’ At last, when he was about half a
mile from the spot where he tied the beast, the cries
stopped altogether. After searching and searching till he
was tired, he returned for his bullock; but there wasn’t
the spor of a bullock there, nor any ee else that he
searched.

This time, when the thieves saw Jack and his prize
coming into the bawn, they couldn’t help shouting out,
“ Jack must be our chief.” .So there was nothing but
feasting and drinking hand to fist the rest of the day.
Before they went to bed, they showed Jack the cave where
their™ money was hid, and all ' their disguises in aiiother
cave, and swore obedience to him.-

One “morning, when they were‘ at~ breakfast, about a
‘week after, said they to’ Jack, “ Will -you ‘mind the house
for us to-day while’ we are at the fair of Mochurry ? We
hadn’t a spree for ever: ‘SO long = “you rhuist eet your turn
whenever you like.” es

“Never say’t twice,” says Jack, and off they went.