J. F. Campbell Collection > Fireside stories of Ireland

JACK THE CUNNING THIEF. 39
any of you," says Jack, " undertake to steal that goat from
the owner before he gets out of the wood, and that without
the smallest violence?" " I couldn't doit," says one, and
" I couldn't do it," says another. " I'm your master," says
Jack, *' and I'll do it."
He slij)ped out, went through the trees to where there
was a bend in the road, and laid down his ^right brogu e in
the very middle of it. Then he ran on to another bend,
and laid down his left brogue and went and hid himself.
When the farmer sees the first brogue, he says to himself,
" That would be worth something if it had the fellow, but
it is worth nothing by itself." He goes on till he comes to
the second brogue. " What a fool I was," says he, " not
to pick up the other! Ill go back for it." So he tied the
goat to a sapling in the hedge, and returned for the brogue.
But Jack, who was behind a tree, had it already on his
foot, and when the man was beyond the bend he picked
up the other and loosened the goat, and led him off through
the wood.
Ochone! the poor man couldn't find the first brogue,
and when he came back he couldn't find the second, nor
neither his goat. " J/iVe (pr. millia) moUacht/" says he,
"what will I do after promising Shevaun (Siobhan, Johanna)
to buy her a shawl. I must only go and drive another
beast to the market unknownst. I'd never hear the last
of it if Joan found out what a fool I made of myself."
The thieves were in great admiration at Jack, and wanted
him to tell them how he done the farmer, but he wouldn't
tell them. By and by, they see the poor man driving a
fine fat wether the same way. "Who'll steal that wether,"
says Jack, " before it's out of the wood, and no roughness
used?" "I couldn't" says one, and " I couldn't," says
another. "I'll tr}-^," says Jack. "Give me a good rope."
The poor farmer was jogging along and thinking of his
misfortune, when he sees a man hanging from the bough
of a tree. " Lord save us ! " says he, " the corpse wasn't
there an hour ago." He went on about half a quarter of a
mile, and there was another corpse again hanging over the
road. "God between us and harm," said he, "am I in my
right senses ] " There was another turn about the same