undle on his little back.

To explain how Spy came by it, it must be said that the forest was not
far from the great city where Spare lived in such high esteem. All
things had gone well with the cobbler till the King thought that it was
quite unbecoming to see such a worthy man without a servant. His Majesty
therefore appointed one of his own pages to wait upon him. The name of
this youth was Tinseltoes, and nobody in all the court had grander
notions. Nothing could please him that had not gold or silver about it,
and his grandmother feared he would hang himself for being appointed
page to a cobbler. As for Spare, the honest man had been so used to
serve himself that the page was always in the way, but his merry leaves
came to his assistance.

Tinseltoes took wonderfully to the new service. Some said it was because
Spare gave him nothing to do but play at bowls all day on the palace
green. Yet one thing grieved the heart of Tinseltoes, and that was his
master's leathern doublet, and at last, finding nothing better would do,
the page got up one fine morning earlier than his master, and tossed the
leathern doublet out of the window into a lane, where Spy found it.

"That nasty thing!" said the old woman. "Where is the good in it?"

By this time Pounce had taken everything of value from Scrub and
Fairfeather--the looking-glass, the silver-rimmed horn, the husband's
scarlet coat, the wife's gay mantle, and, above all, the golden leaves,
which so rejoiced old Buttertongue and her sons that they threw the
leathern doublet over the sleeping cobbler for a jest, and went off to
their hut in the heart of the forest.

The sun was going down when Scrub and Fairfeather awoke from dreaming
that they had been made a lord and a lady, and sat clothed in silk and
velvet, feasting with the King in his palace hall. It was a great
disappointment to find their golden leaves and all their best things
gone. Scrub tore his hair, and vowed to take the old woman's life; while
Fairfeather lamented sore. But Scrub, feeling cold for want of his coat,
put on the leathern doublet without asking whence it came.

Scarcely was it buttoned on when a change came over him. He addressed
such merry discourse to Fairfeather that, instead of lamentations, she
made the wood ring with laughter. Both busied themselves in setting up a
hut of boughs, in which Scrub kindled a fire with a flint of steel,
which, together with his pipe, he had brought unknown to Fa