[Illustration: 9028]
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.’
[Illustration: 0030]
‘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!’
[Illustration: 0032]
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!_’
[Illustration: 0034]
‘_There’s another caught and done for!_‘said Johnny Nut, as he went on
his way.