o see holes in bags.

[Illustration: She took the bag down and sewed up the hole.]

CHAPTER III.

The next day was market day. On market day people who have butter or
cheese to sell take it into the market to sell it. And people who have
money and happen to want butter or cheese go into the market to buy it.
The old man's wife had nothing to sell. Neither had she any money. But
she wanted some butter very badly. So she took the old man's bag off
the nail and carried it to market. She walked round the market with the
bag under her arm and looked at all the stalls and enquired how much
the strawberries were a pound; but she did not buy anything because she
had no money. In a little while she came to a stall on which there were
six rolls of fine fresh butter, and in front of them was a card on
which the man who brought the butter to market had written--

BUTTER IS CHEAP TO-DAY.

[Illustration: "Butter is cheap to-day!"]

"I am glad butter is cheap to-day," said the old woman to herself, and
when the man who had brought the butter to market was not looking she
picked up a roll and dropped it into her bag. Then she ran away as fast
as she could.

When she got round the corner the red policeman saw her. He shouted
out, "What have you got in that bag?"

"Nothing," said the old woman, still running.

But the policeman kept running after her. When they had run about five
miles the old woman dropped the bag, so that she might run quicker. The
policeman, however, had made up his mind to catch her, and when they
had run about ten miles he caught her.

"Now," he said, "you must come back with me to your bag, and we will
see if there is anything in it." The old man's wife said that she was
sure there was nothing in it. "All right," said the policeman, "but if
you don't mind we will go back and see." So they went back to the bag,
and the policeman opened it with great care. Inside he found the roll
of butter.

The old man's wife began to cry. "Oh dear, oh dear," she said, "what a
pity it is that I sewed up that hole."

"Why?" asked the red policeman.

"Because if I had not sewn up the hole the butter might have got out,
like my husband's hen."

"You are a very foolish old woman," said the policeman. "Do you not
know that a roll of butter cannot walk like a hen?"

[Illustration: "You are a very foolish old woman."]

"Is that really so?" said the old woman. "Well, well. But I have seen
butter run when it