shook his red comb from
over his left to over his right eye. Then said he, Everyone in the
house was friendly to Little Fawn except one person--Murrish the
Cook-woman. From the first day he came there were disputes between
them. "Big men have big appetites," said she to him the day he
came, "and so to-night I will give you two eggs for your supper." But
when she handed him the eggs Little Fawn said "It was not the eggs of
the hedge-sparrow we were wont to eat in my time." "Eggs of the
hedge-sparrow!" said Murrish, "I have handed you the biggest eggs laid
by the best hens in the country." "In my time there were bigger eggs
in the nest of the hedge-sparrow," said Little Fawn.

[Illustration: All flew from the mountain except one bird and he was
the greatest amongst them all.]

The next day she gave him a barley-cake for his breakfast. He ate it
and then sent the boy--Ardan was his name--to ask what else she was
going to give him.

"Give him!" said Murrish the Cook-woman, "I have given him a whole
barley cake, and that is enough for two men's breakfasts."

"Tell her," said Little Fawn, "that I often saw an ivy-leaf that was
as big as her barley cake."

"Tell him," said Murrish the Cook-woman, "that I am not here to listen
to old men's romances."

Now when he heard that his words were taken as old men's romances
Little Fawn was an angry man. He was hungry, for the food he got did
not stay his appetite, but what Murrish said in doubt of his word gave
him more hurt than his hunger did. For in his day and amongst his
companions a lie was never told and nothing a man said was ever
doubted.

The next day he sent back the dish for more butter.

"Tell him," said Murrish the Cook-woman, "that I put a whole pat of
butter on his dish--enough to do two men for two days."

"Tell her," said Little Fawn, "that often I saw a rowan berry that was
bigger as her pat of butter."

"The child just out of the cradle would not believe that story," said
Murrish the Cook-woman.

She sent him a quarter of mutton for his dinner. Little Fawn told
Ardan to ask Murrish for more, as the dinner she gave him left him
hungry still.

"Did he not get a whole quarter of mutton for his dinner?" said
Murrish.

"A whole quarter of mutton, did she say?" said Little Fawn. "Often I
saw a quarter of a blackbird that was bigger than her quarter of
mutton."

"A quarter of a blackbird bigger than my quarter of mutton! Tell him
that if he never lied