es stopped, and the old man said:

"Rise and shear--this flock of mine have too much wool on them."

Clutch had never shorn wolves before, yet he went forward bravely; but
the first of the wolves showed its teeth, and all the rest raised such a
howl that Clutch was glad to throw down his shears and run behind the
old man for safety.

"Good father," cried he, "I will shear sheep, but not wolves!"

"They must be shorn," said the old man, "or you go back to the plains,
and them after you; but whichever of you can shear them will get the
whole flock."

On hearing this, Kind caught up the shears Clutch had thrown away in his
fright, and went boldly up to the nearest wolf. To his great surprise,
the wild creature seemed to know him, and stood quietly to be shorn.
Kind clipped neatly, but not too closely, and when he had done with one,
another came forward, till the whole flock were shorn. Then the man
said:

"You have done well; take the wool and the flock for your wages, return
with them to the plain, and take this brother of yours for a boy to keep
them."

Kind did not much like keeping wolves, but before he could answer they
had all changed into the very sheep which had strayed away, and the hair
he had cut off was now a heap of fine and soft wool.

Clutch gathered it up in his bag, and went back to the plain with his
brother. They keep the sheep together till this day, but Clutch has
grown less greedy, and Kind alone uses the shears.

THE COBBLERS AND THE CUCKOO

Once upon a time there stood in the midst of a bleak moor, in the North
Country, a certain village; all its inhabitants were poor, for their
fields were barren, and they had little trade. But the poorest of them
all were two brothers called Scrub and Spare, who followed the cobbler's
craft, and had but one stall between them. It was a hut built of clay
and wattles. There they worked in most brotherly friendship, though with
little encouragement.

The people of that village were not extravagant in shoes, and better
cobblers than Scrub and Spare might be found. Nevertheless, Scrub and
Spare managed to live between their own trade, a small barley-field, and
a cottage-garden, till one unlucky day when a new cobbler arrived in the
village. He had lived in the capital city of the kingdom, and, by his
own account, cobbled for the queen and the princesses. His awls were
sharp, his lasts were new; he set up his stall in a neat cottage with
two window