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6 him, went and borrowed him a cart rope to his desire.

He taking it went his way; coming to the farmer’s house, the master was in the barn, and two men threshing. Said Tom, I am come for a bottle of straw. Tom, said the master, take as much as thou canst carry. He laid down the cart rope, and began to make his bottle; said they, Tom thy rope is to short, and jeer’d poor Tom, but he fitted the man well for it: for he made his bottle, and when he had finished it, there was supposed to be a load of straw in it, of two thousand weight. Said they, what a great fool art thou, thou canst not carry the tenth of it? Tom took the bottle and flung it over his shoulder, and made no more of it than we do of an hundred weight, to the great admiration of master and men.

Tom Hickathrift’s strength being then known in the town, they would no longer let him lie baking by the fire in the chimney corner, every one