at all; I can't bear stupid people.'

'No, he isn't stupid,' said the woman with a sigh. 'So to-night,
after dark, I will send him to you.'

The Shifty Lad jumped for joy when his mother told him where she
had been.

'I will become the best thief in all Erin!' he cried, and paid no
heed when his mother shook her head and murmured something about
'the bridge of Dublin.'

Every evening after dark the Shifty Lad went to the home of the
Black Gallows Bird, and many were the new tricks he learned. By-
and-by he was allowed to go out with the Bird and watch him at
work, and at last there came a day when his master though that he
had grown clever enough to help in a big robbery.

'There is a rich farmer up there on the hill, who has just sold
all his fat cattle for much money and has bought some lean ones
which will cost him little. Now it happens that, while he has
received the money for the fat cattle, he has not yet paid the
price of the thin ones, which he has in the cowhouse. To-morrow
he will go to the market with the money in his hand, so to-night
we must get at the chest. When all is quiet we will hide in the
loft.'

There was no moon, and it was the night of Hallowe'en, and
everyone was burning nuts and catching apples in a tub of water
with their hands tied, and playing all sorts of other games, till