Do you see
that magpie yonder, sitting in the spruce fir? What will you give me if
I hit it as we stand here?"
"Well," said the sheriff, and he laughed when he said it, "I'll give you
all the money I have in my pocket, and I'll go and fetch it when it
falls," for he never thought it possible for any gun to carry so far.
But as the gun went off down fell the magpie, and into a great bramble
thicket; and away went the sheriff up into the bramble after it, and he
picked it up and held it up high for the lad to see. But just then
Little Freddy began to play his fiddle, and the sheriff began to dance,
and the thorns to tear him; but still the lad played on, and the sheriff
danced, and cried, and begged, till his clothes flew to tatters, and he
scarce had a thread to his back.
"Yes," said Little Freddy, "now I think you're about as ragged as I was
when I left your service; so now you may get off with what you have."
But first the sheriff had to pay him all the money that he had in his
pocket.
So when the lad came to town he turned into an inn, and there he began
to play, and all who came danced and laughed and were merry, and so the
lad lived without any care, for all the folks liked him and no one would
say "Nay" to anything he asked.
But one evening just as they were all in the midst of their fun, up came
the watchmen to drag the lad off to the town hall; for the sheriff had
laid a charge against him, and said he had waylaid him and robbed him
and nearly taken his life.
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