Page:Popular tales from the Norse (1912).djvu/291

 Rh THE COCK AND HEN.

Hen—"You promise me shoes year after year, year after year, and yet I get no shoes!"

Cock—"You shall have them, never fear! Henny penny!"

Hen—"I lay egg after egg, egg after egg, and yet I go about barefoot!"

Cock—"Well, take your eggs, and be off to the tryst, and buy yourself shoes, and don't go any longer barefoot!"

THE MASTER-SMITH.

on a time, in the days when our Lord and St. Peter used to wander on earth, they came to a smith's house. He had made a bargain with the Devil that the fiend should have him after seven years, but during that time he was to be the master of all masters in his trade, and to this bargain both he and the Devil had signed their names. So he had stuck up in great letters over the door of his forge,—

"Here dwells the Master over all Masters."

Now when our Lord passed by and saw that, he went in.