tingham, "but thou shalt
not."

"By Maid Marion," said he that was going thither, "but I will."

"You will not," said the one.

"I will."

Then they beat their staves against the ground, one against the other,
as if there had been a hundred sheep between them.

"Hold in," said one; "beware lest my sheep leap over the bridge."

"I care not," said the other; "they shall not come this way."

"But they shall," said the other.

Then the other said, "If that thou make much to do, I will put my
fingers in thy mouth."

"Will you?" said the other.

Now, as they were at their contention, another man of Gotham came from
the market with a sack of meal upon a horse, and seeing and hearing his
neighbours at strife about sheep, though there were none between them,
said:

"Ah, fools! will you ever learn wisdom? Help me, and lay my sack upon my
shoulders."

They did so, and he went to the side of the bridge, unloosened the mouth
of the sack, and shook all his meal out into the river.

"Now, neighbours," he said, "how much meal is there in my sack?"

"Marry," said they, "there is none at all."

"Now, by my faith," said he, "even as much wit as is in your two heads
to stir up strife about a thing you have not."

Which was the wisest of these three persons, judge yourself.

[Illustration: "A vengeance on her!" said they. "We did not make our
hedge high enough"]

OF HEDGING A CUCKOO

Once upon a time the men of Gotham would have kept the Cuckoo so that
she might sing all the year, and in the midst of their town they made a
hedge round in compass and they got a Cuckoo, and put her into it, and
said, "Sing there all through the year, or thou shalt have neither meat
nor water." The Cuckoo, as soon as she perceived herself within the
hedge, flew away. "A vengeance on her!" said they. "We did not make our
hedge high enough."

[Illustration: He took out the cheeses and rolled them down the hill]

OF SENDING CHEESES

There was a man of Gotham who went to the market at Nottingham to sell
cheese, and as he was going down the hill to Nottingham bridge, one of
his cheeses fell out of his wallet and rolled down the hill. "Ah,
gaffer," said the fellow, "can you run to market alone? I will send one
after another after you." Then he laid down his wallet and took out the
cheeses and rolled them down the hill. Some went into one bush, and some
went into another.

"I charge you all to meet me near the market-place," cried he; a