Chapter II

EXT day was a Saturday, and the farmer’s wife went to waken Johnny in the stable-loft.

‘Come, come, up with you!’ says she, shaking him. ‘Don’t you hear the cock crowing?’ So she gave him a big bowl of coffee, and _such_ a chunk of bread; and showed him the way, and sent him off, saying, ‘Mind you ask for my cousin’s mill, and bring me the goose, and seven bushels of flour, and a pint of seed corn.’

‘Seven bushels, and one pint,’ ‘Seven bushels, and one pint’--for, not being very clever, he was afraid he might forget.

As he went on saying this, he met a farmer, who was counting up how much his field should bring him in.

‘_Seven_ bushels, indeed!’ said the farmer. ‘Let a hundred come!’

Now this puzzled Johnny Silly Billy, for he had never room in his head for more than one idea at a time; so he went on his way, repeating,

‘Let a hundred come! let a hundred come!’

Well, as Johnny crossed a wood, there sat a shepherd, as red as scarlet, and as proud as a peacock that has laid an egg; and all because his dog had just killed a wolf that was after the lambs.

‘Let a hundred of them come! let a hundred of them come!’ sang out Johnny Nut.

‘What do you mean, you fool?’ says the shepherd, ‘with your _Let a hundred them come!_ A hundred, indeed! Rather say, _There’s another caught and done for!_’

‘_There’s another caught and done for!_‘said Johnny Nut, as he went on his way.