the Shifty Lad grew quite tired of waiting for them to get to
bed. The Black Gallows Bird, who was more accustomed to the
business, tucked himself up on the hay and went to sleep, telling
the boy to wake him when the merry-makers had departed. But the
Shifty Lad, who could keep still no longer, crept down to the
cowshed and loosened the heads of the cattle which were tied, and
they began to kick each other and bellow, and made such a noise
that the company in the farmhouse ran out to tie them up again.
Then the Shifty Lad entered the room and picked up a big handful
of nuts, and returned to the loft, where the Black Rogue was
still sleeping. At first the Shifty Lad shut his eyes too, but
very soon he sat up, and taking a big needle and thread from his
pocket, he sewed the hem of the Black Gallows Bird's coat to a
heavy piece of bullock's hide that was hanging at his back.

By this time the cattle were all tied up again, but as the people
could not find their nuts they sat round the fire and began to
tell stories.

'I will crack a nut,' said the Shifty Lad.

'You shall not,' cried the Black Gallows Bird; 'they will hear
you.'

'I don't care,' answered the Shifty Lad. 'I never spend
Hallowe'en yet without cracking a nut'; and he cracked one.

'Some one is cracking nuts up there,' said one of the merry-
makers in the farmhouse. 'Come quickly, and we will see who it
is.'