, "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:

"Take me up, bone by bone,
And