The next day three heifers were missing, and the master bade Jack go
in search of them.

"Where shall I look for them?" said Jack.

"Oh, every place likely and unlikely for them all to be in."

The churl was getting very exact in his words. When he was coming into
the yard at dinner time, what work did he find Jack at but pulling
armfuls of the thatch off the roof, and peeping into the holes he was
making.

"What are you doing there, you rascal?"

"Sure, I'm looking for the heifers, poor things!"

"What would bring them there?"

"I don't think anything could bring them in it; but I looked first
into the likely places, that is the cowhouses, and the pastures, and
the fields next 'em, and now I'm looking in the unlikeliest place I
can think of. Maybe it's not pleasing to you it is."

"And to be sure it isn't pleasing to me, you aggravating goose-cap!"

"Please, sir, hand me one pound thirteen and fourpence before you sit
down to your dinner. I'm afraid it's sorrow that's on you for hiring
me at all."

"May the div--oh, no; I'm not sorry. Will you begin, if you please,
and put in the thatch again, just as if you were doing it for your
mother's cabin?"

"Oh, faith I will, sir, with a heart and a half;" and by the time the
farmer came out from his dinner, Jack had the roof better than it was
before, for he made the boy give him new straw.

Says the master when he came out: "Go, Jack, and look for the heifers,
and bring them home."

"And where shall I look for 'em?"

"Go and search for them as if they were your own." The heifers were
all in the paddock before sunset.

Next morning says the master: "Jack, the path across the bog to the
pasture is very bad; the sheep does be sinking in it every step; go
and make the sheep's feet a good path." About an hour after he came
to the edge of the bog, and what did he find Jack at but sharpening a
carving knife, and the sheep standing or grazing around.

"Is this the way you are mending the path, Jack?" said he.

"Everything must have a beginning, master," said Jack, "and a thing
well begun is half done. I am sharpening the knife, and I'll have the
feet off every sheep in the flock while you'd be blessing yourself."

"Feet off my sheep, you anointed rogue! and what would you be taking
their feet off for?"

"An', sure, to mend the path as you told me. Says you, 'Jack, make a
path with the foot of the sheep.'"

"Oh, you fool, I meant make good the path for the s