stick you have got." "Yes," said the man; "I have used it for many a
long mile, and a good friend it has been; but if you have a fancy for
it, as you are a friend, I don't mind giving it to you for that pair
of gloves." Mr. Vinegar's hands were so warm, and his legs so tired,
that he gladly made the exchange.

As he drew near to the wood where he had left his wife, he heard a
parrot on a tree calling out his name: "Mr. Vinegar, you foolish man,
you blockhead, you simpleton; you went to the fair, and laid out all
your money in buying a cow. Not content with that, you changed it for
bagpipes, on which you could not play, and which were not worth one-
tenth of the money. You fool, you--you had no sooner got the bagpipes
than you changed them for the gloves, which were not worth one-quarter
of the money; and when you had got the gloves, you changed them for a
poor miserable stick; and now for your forty guineas, cow, bagpipes,
and gloves, you have nothing to show but that poor miserable stick,
which you might have cut in any hedge." On this the bird laughed and
laughed, and Mr. Vinegar, falling into a violent rage, threw the stick
at its head. The stick lodged in the tree, and he returned to his wife
without money, cow, bagpipes, gloves, or stick, and she instantly gave
him such a sound cudgelling that she almost broke every bone in his
skin.



NIX NOUGHT NOTHING

There once lived a king and a queen as many a one has been. They were
long married and had no children; but at last a baby-boy came to the
queen when the king was away in the far countries. The queen would not