Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/432

 396 Miscellanea.

The farmer's wife said : " How did he seem to be working ? "

" Oh," he said, " I peeped through a loop-hole in the barn, and he didn't see me, but I saw him ; and he was working as slowly as he could."

" That'll never do," she said ; " I'll try him with something better than that."

So the next day she made a nice plum pudding and an apple pie for the man. Then she told her husband to go and see if he worked any better.

So this time the farmer heard him singing :

" Plum pudden and apple pie, Do your work accordingly. Plum pudden, &c."

So the farmer went back to his wife, and told her what he had heard.

" How was he working ? " she said.

" Much better, but not so fast as he might do," he replied.

" Oh, well," she said, " I'll try him with better food than that."

So the next day she gave him roast beef and plum pudding, and told her husband to go and see if he worked any better.

So this time the farmer heard him singing :

" Roast beef and plum pudden, Do your work like a good un. Roast beef, &c."

Then the farmer told his wife what he had heard, and said the man was working as hard as a horse and with all his might.

So after this the farmer's wife always fed the man on the best food that she could get, and he worked hard ever after.

S. O. Addy.