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<h2> The Shifty Lad </h2>
<p>In the land of Erin there dwelt long ago a widow who had an only son. He
was a clever boy, so she saved up enough money to send him to school, and,
as soon as he was old enough, to apprentice him to any trade that he would
choose. But when the time came, he said he would not be bound to any
trade, and that he meant to be a thief.</p>
<p>Now his mother was very sorrowful when she heard of this, but she knew
quite well that if she tried to stop his having his own way he would only
grow more determined to get it. So all the answer she made was that the
end of thieves was hanging at the bridge of Dublin, and then she left him
alone, hoping that when he was older he might become more sensible.</p>
<p>One day she was going to church to hear a sermon from a great preacher,
and she begged the Shifty Lad, as the neighbours called him from the
tricks he played, to come with her. But he only laughed and declared that
he did not like sermons, adding:</p>
<p>'However, I will promise you this, that the first trade you hear named
after you come out from church shall be my trade for the rest of my life.'</p>
<p>These words gave a little comfort to the poor woman, and her heart was
lighter than before as she bade him farewell.</p>
<p>When the Shifty Lad thought that the hour had nearly come for the sermon
to be over, he hid himself in some bushes in a little path that led
straight to his mother's house, and, as she passed along, thinking of all
the good things she had heard, a voice shouted close to her ear 'Robbery!
Robbery! Robbery!' The suddenness of it made her jump. The naughty boy had
managed to change his voice, so that she did not know it for his, and he
had concealed himself so well that, though she peered about all round her,
she could see no one. As soon as she had turned the corner the Shifty Lad
came out, and by running very fast through the wood he contrived to reach
home before his mother, who found him stretched out comfortably before the
fire.</p>
<p>'Well, have you got any news to tell me?' asked he.</p>
<p>'No, nothing; for I left the church at once, and did not stop to speak to
anyone.'</p>
<p>'Oh, then no one has mentioned a trade to you?' he said in tones of
disappointment.</p>
<p>'Ye—es,' she replied slowly. 'At least, as I walked down the path a
voice cried out "Robbery! Robbery! Robbery!" but that was all.'</p>
<p>'And quite enough too,' answered the boy. 'What did I tell you? That is
going to be my trade.'</p>
<p>'Then your end will be hanging at the bridge of Dublin,' said she. But
there was no sleep for her that night, for she lay in the dark thinking
about her son.</p>
<p>'If he is to be a thief at all, he had better be a good one. And who is
there that can teach him?' the mother asked herself. But an idea came to
her, and she arose early, before the sun was up, and set off for the home
of the Black Rogue, or Gallows Bird, who was such a wonderful thief that,
though all had been robbed by him, no one could catch him.</p>
<p>'Good-morning to you,' said the woman as she reached the place where the
Black Gallows Bird lived when he was not away on his business. 'My son has
a fancy to learn your trade. Will you be kind enough to teach him?'</p>
<p>'If he is clever, I don't mind trying,' answered the Black Gallows Bird;
'and, of course, if ANY one can turn him into a first-rate thief, it is I.
But if he is stupid, it is of no use at all; I can't bear stupid people.'</p>
<p>'No, he isn't stupid,' said the woman with a sigh. 'So to-night, after
dark, I will send him to you.'</p>
<p>The Shifty Lad jumped for joy when his mother told him where she had been.</p>
<p>'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.'</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>'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.'</p>
<p>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 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>'I will crack a nut,' said the Shifty Lad.</p>
<p>'You shall not,' cried the Black Gallows Bird; 'they will hear you.'</p>
<p>'I don't care,' answered the Shifty Lad. 'I never spend Hallowe'en yet
without cracking a nut'; and he cracked one.</p>
<p>'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.'</p>
<p>He spoke loudly, and the Black Gallows Bird heard, and ran out of the
loft, dragging the big leather hide after him which the Shifty Lad had
sewed to his coat.</p>
<p>'He is stealing my hide!' shouted the farmer, and they all darted after
him; but he was too swift for them, and at last he managed to tear the
hide from his coat, and then he flew like a hare till he reached his old
hiding-place. But all this took a long time, and meanwhile the Shifty Lad
got down from the loft, and searched the house till he found the chest
with the gold and silver in it, concealed behind a load of straw and
covered with loaves of bread and a great cheese. The Shifty Lad slung the
money bags round his shoulders and took the bread and the cheese under his
arm, then set out quietly for the Black Rogue's house.</p>
<p>'Here you are at last, you villain!' cried his master in great wrath. 'But
I will be revenged on you.'</p>
<p>'It is all right,' replied the Shifty Lad calmly. 'I have brought what you
wanted'; and he laid the things he was carrying down on the ground.</p>
<p>'Ah! you are the better thief,' said the Black Rogue's wife; and the Black
Rogue added:</p>
<p>'Yes, it is you who are the clever boy'; and they divided the spoil and
the Black Gallows Bird had one half and the Shifty Lad the other half.</p>
<p>A few weeks after that the Black Gallows Bird had news of a wedding that
was to be held near the town; and the bridegroom had many friends and
everybody sent him a present. Now a rich farmer who lived up near the moor
thought that nothing was so useful to a young couple when they first began
to keep house as a fine fat sheep, so he bade his shepherd go off to the
mountain where the flock were feeding, and bring him back the best he
could find. And the shepherd chose out the largest and fattest of the
sheep and the one with the whitest fleece; then he tied its feet together
and put it across his shoulder, for he had a long way to go.</p>
<p>That day, the Shifty Lad happened to be wandering over the moor, when he
saw the man with the sheep on his shoulder walking along the road which
led past the Black Rogue's house. The sheep was heavy and the man was in
no hurry, so he came slowly and the boy knew that he himself could easily
get back to his master before the shepherd was even in sight.</p>
<p>'I will wager,' he cried, as he pushed quickly through the bushes which
hid the cabin—'I will wager that I will steal the sheep from the man
that is coming before he passes here.'</p>
<p>'Will you indeed?' said the Gallows Bird. 'I will wager you a hundred
silver pieces that you can do nothing of the sort.'</p>
<p>'Well, I will try it, anyway,' replied the boy, and disappeared in the
bushes. He ran fast till he entered a wood through which the shepherd must
go, and then he stopped, and taking off one of his shoes smeared it with
mud and set it in the path. When this was done he slipped behind a rock
and waited.</p>
<p>Very soon the man came up, and seeing the shoe lying there, he stooped and
looked at it.</p>
<p>'It is a good shoe,' he said to himself, 'but very dirty. Still, if I had
the fellow, I would be at the trouble of cleaning it'; so he threw the
shoe down again and went on.</p>
<p>The Shifty Lad smiled as he heard him, and, picking up the shoe, he crept
round by a short way and laid the other shoe on the path. A few minutes
after the shepherd arrived, and beheld the second shoe lying on the path.</p>
<p>'Why, that is the fellow of the dirty shoe!' he exclaimed when he saw it.
'I will go back and pick up the other one, and then I shall have a pair of
good shoes,' and he put the sheep on the grass and returned to fetch the
shoe. Then the Shifty Lad put on his shoes, and, picking up the sheep,
carried it home. And the Black Rogue paid him the hundred marks of his
wager.</p>
<p>When the shepherd reached the farmhouse that night he told his tale to his
master, who scolded him for being stupid and careless, and bade him go the
next day to the mountain and fetch him a kid, and he would send that as a
wedding gift. But the Shifty Lad was on the look-out, and hid himself in
the wood, and the moment the man drew near with the kid on his shoulders
began to bleat like a sheep, and no one, not even the sheep's own mother,
could have told the difference.</p>
<p>'Why, it must have got its feet loose, and have strayed after all,'
thought the man; and he put the kid on the grass and hurried off in the
direction of the bleating. Then the boy ran back and picked up the kid,
and took it to the Black Gallows Bird.</p>
<p>The shepherd could hardly believe his eyes when he returned from seeking
the sheep and found that the kid had vanished. He was afraid to go home
and tell the same tale that he had told yesterday; so he searched the wood
through and through till night was nearly come. Then he felt that there
was no help for it, and he must go home and confess to his master.</p>
<p>Of course, the farmer was very angry at this second misfortune; but this
time he told him to drive one of the big bulls from the mountain, and
warned him that if he lost THAT he would lose his place also. Again the
Shifty Lad, who was on the watch, perceived him pass by, and when he saw
the man returning with the great bull he cried to the Black Rogue:</p>
<p>'Be quick and come into the wood, and we will try to get the bull also.'</p>
<p>'But how can we do that?' asked the Black Rogue.</p>
<p>'Oh, quite easily! You hide yourself out there and baa like a sheep, and I
will go in the other direction and bleat like a kid. It will be all right,
I assure you.'</p>
<p>The shepherd was walking slowly, driving the bull before him, when he
suddenly heard a loud baa amongst the bushes far away on one side of the
path, and a feeble bleat answering it from the other side.</p>
<p>'Why, it must be the sheep and the kid that I lost,' said he. 'Yes, surely
it must'; and tying the bull hastily to a tree, he went off after the
sheep and the kid, and searched the wood till he was tired. Of course by
the time he came back the two thieves had driven the bull home and killed
him for meat, so the man was obliged to go to his master and confess that
he had been tricked again.</p>
<p>After this the Black Rogue and the Shifty Lad grew bolder and bolder, and
stole great quantities of cattle and sold them and grew quite rich. One
day they were returning from the market with a large sum of money in their
pockets when they passed a gallows erected on the top of a hill.</p>
<p>'Let us stop and look at that gallows,' exclaimed the Shifty Lad. 'I have
never seen one so close before. Yet some say that it is the end of all
thieves.'</p>
<p>There was no one in sight, and they carefully examined every part of it.</p>
<p>'I wonder how it feels to be hanged,' said the Shifty Lad. 'I should like
to know, in case they ever catch me. I'll try first, and then you can do
so.'</p>
<p>As he spoke he fastened the loose cord about his neck, and when it was
quite secure he told the Black Rogue to take the other end of the rope and
draw him up from the ground.</p>
<p>'When I am tired of it I will shake my legs, and then you must let me
down,' said he.</p>
<p>The Black Rogue drew up the rope, but in half a minute the Shifty Lad's
legs began to shake, and he quickly let it down again.</p>
<p>'You can't imagine what a funny feeling hanging gives you,' murmured the
Shifty Lad, who looked rather purple in the face and spoke in an odd
voice. 'I don't think you have every tried it, or you wouldn't have let me
go up first. Why, it is the pleasantest thing I have ever done. I was
shaking my legs from sheer delight, and if you had been there you would
have shaken your legs too.'</p>
<p>'Well, let me try, if it is so nice,' answered the Black Rogue. 'But be
sure you tie the knot securely, for I don't want to fall down and break my
neck.'</p>
<p>'Oh, I will see to that!' replied the Shifty Lad. 'When you are tired,
just whistle, and I'll let you down.'</p>
<p>So the Black Rogue was drawn up, and as soon as he was as high as the rope
would allow him to go the Shifty Lad called to him:</p>
<p>'Don't forest to whistle when you want to come down; but if you are
enjoying yourself as I did, shake your legs.'</p>
<p>And in a moment the Black Rogue's legs began to shake and to kick, and the
Shifty Lad stood below, watching him and laughing heartily.</p>
<p>'Oh, how funny you are! If you could only see yourself! Oh, you ARE funny!
But when you have had enough, whistle and you shall be let down'; and he
rocked again with laughter.</p>
<p>But no whistle came, and soon the legs ceased to shake and to kick, for
the Black Gallows Bird was dead, as the Shifty Lad intended he should be.</p>
<p>Then he went home to the Black Rogue's wife, and told her that her husband
was dead, and that he was ready to marry her if she liked. But the woman
had been fond of the Black Rogue, thief though he was, and she shrank from
the Shifty Lad in horror, and set the people after him, and he had to fly
to another part of the country where none knew of his doings.</p>
<p>Perhaps if the Shifty Lad's mother knew anything of this, she may have
thought that by this time her son might be tired of stealing, and ready to
try some honest trade. But in reality he loved the tricks and danger, and
life would have seemed very dull without them. So he went on just as
before, and made friends whom he taught to be as wicked as himself, till
they took to robbing the king's storehouses, and by the advice of the Wise
Man the king sent out soldiers to catch the band of thieves.</p>
<p>For a long while they tried in vain to lay hands on them. The Shifty Lad
was too clever for them all, and if they laid traps he laid better ones.
At last one night he stole upon some soldiers while they were asleep in a
barn and killed them, and persuaded the villagers that if THEY did not
kill the other soldiers before morning they would certainly be killed
themselves. Thus it happened that when the sun rose not a single soldier
was alive in the village.</p>
<p>Of course this news soon reached the king's ears, and he was very angry,
and summoned the Wise Man to take counsel with him. And this was the
counsel of the Wise Man—that he should invite all the people in the
countryside to a ball, and among them the bold and impudent thief would be
sure to come, and would be sure to ask the king's daughter to dance with
him.</p>
<p>'Your counsel is good,' said the king, who made his feast and prepared for
his ball; and all the people of the countryside were present, and the
Shifty Lad came with them.</p>
<p>When everyone had eaten and drunk as much as they wanted they went into
the ballroom. There was a great throng, and while they were pressing
through the doorway the Wise Man, who had a bottle of black ointment
hidden in his robes, placed a tiny dot on the cheek of the Shifty Lad near
his ear. The Shifty Lad felt nothing, but as he approached the king's
daughter to ask her to be his partner he caught sight of the black dot in
a silver mirror. Instantly he guessed who had put it there and why, but he
said nothing, and danced so beautifully that the princess was quite
delighted with him. At the end of the dance he bowed low to his partner
and left her, to mingle with the crowd that was filling the doorway. As he
passed the Wise Man he contrived not only to steal the bottle but to place
two black dots on his face, and one on the faces of twenty other men. Then
he slipped the bottle back in the Wise Man's robe.</p>
<p>By-and-by he went up to the king's daughter again, and begged for the
honour of another dance. She consented, and while he was stooping to tie
the ribbons on his shoe she took out from her pocket another bottle, which
the Wizard had given her, and put a black dot on his cheek. But she was
not as skilful as the Wise Man, and the Shifty Lad felt the touch of her
fingers; so as soon as the dance was over he contrived to place a second
black dot on the faces of the twenty men and two more on the Wizard, after
which he slipped the bottle into her pocket.</p>
<p>At length the ball came to an end, and then the king ordered all the doors
to be shut, and search made for a man with two black dots on his cheek.
The chamberlain went among the guests, and soon found such a man, but just
as he was going to arrest him and bring him before the king his eye fell
on another with the same mark, and another, and another, till he had
counted twenty—besides the Wise Man—on whose face were found
spots.</p>
<p>Not knowing what to do, the chamberlain hurried back with his tale to the
king, who immediately sent for the Wise Man, and then for his daughter.</p>
<p>'The thief must have stolen your bottle,' said the king to the Wizard.</p>
<p>'No, my lord, it is here,' answered the Wise Man, holding it out.</p>
<p>'Then he must have got yours,' he cried, turning to his daughter.</p>
<p>'Indeed, father, it is safe in my pocket,' replied she, taking it out as
she spoke; and they all three looked at each other and remained silent.</p>
<p>'Well,' said the king at last, 'the man who has done this is cleverer than
most men, and if he will make himself known to me he shall marry the
princess and govern half my kingdom while I am alive, and the whole of it
when I am dead. Go and announce this in the ballroom,' he added to an
attendant, 'and bring the fellow hither.'</p>
<p>So the attendant went into the ballroom and did as the king had bidden
him, when, to his surprise, not one man, but twenty, stepped forward, all
with black dots on their faces.</p>
<p>'I am the person you want,' they all exclaimed at once, and the attendant,
as much bewildered as the chamberlain had been, desired them to follow him
into the king's presence.</p>
<p>But the question was too difficult for the king to decide, so he called
together his council. For hours they talked, but to no purpose, and in the
end they hit upon a plan which they might just as well have thought of at
the beginning.</p>
<p>And this was the plan. A child was to be brought to the palace, and next
the king's daughter would give her an apple. Then the child was to take
the apple and be led into a room where the twenty men with the black dots
were sitting in a ring. And to whomsoever the child gave the apple, that
man should marry the king's daughter.</p>
<p>'Of course,' said the king, 'it may not be the right man, after all, but
then again it MAY be. Anyhow, it is the best we can do.'</p>
<p>The princess herself led the child into the room where the twenty men were
now seated. She stood in the centre of the ring for a moment, looking at
one man after another, and then held out the apple to the Shifty Lad, who
was twisting a shaving of wood round his finger, and had the mouthpiece of
a bagpipe hanging from his neck.</p>
<p>'You ought not to have anything which the others have not got,' said the
chamberlain, who had accompanied the princess; and he bade the child stand
outside for a minute, while he took away the shaving and the mouthpiece,
and made the Shifty Lad change his place. Then he called the child in, but
the little girl knew him again, and went straight up to him with the
apple.</p>
<p>'This is the man whom the child has twice chosen,' said the chamberlain,
signing to the Shifty Lad to kneel before the king. 'It was all quite
fair; we tried it twice over.' In this way the Shifty Lad won the king's
daughter, and they were married the next day.</p>
<p>A few days later the bride and bridegroom were taking a walk together, and
the path led down to the river, and over the river was a bridge.</p>
<p>'And what bridge may this be?' asked the Shifty Lad; and the princess told
him that this was the bridge of Dublin.</p>
<p>'Is it indeed?' cried he. 'Well, now, many is the time that my mother has
said, when I played her a trick, that my end would be that I should hang
on the bridge of Dublin.'</p>
<p>'Oh, if you want to fulfil her prophecies,' laughed the princess, 'you
have only to let me tie my handkerchief round your ankle, and I will hold
you as you hang over the wall of the bridge.'</p>
<p>'That would be fine fun,' said he; 'but you are not strong enough to hold
me up.'</p>
<p>'Oh, yes, I am,' said the princess; 'just try.' So at last he let her bind
the handkerchief round his ankle and hang him over the wall, and they both
laughed and jested at the strength of the princess.</p>
<p>'Now pull me up again,' called he; but as he spoke a great cry arose that
the palace was burning. The princess turned round with a start, and let go
her handkerchief, and the Shifty Lad fell, and struck his head on a stone,
and died in an instant.</p>
<p>So his mother's prophecy had come true, after all.</p>
<p>West Highland Tales.</p>
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