Tom escaped, but it was a rough life he led, and he was always in fear
of punishment for his many misdeeds. At last he concluded he had had
enough of depending on his wits for a livelihood and decided he would go
to work.
So he hired himself to an old miser of a farmer with whom he continued
several years. On the whole he made a good servant, and though he
sometimes played tricks on those about him, it was his habit to make
good any damage he did.
His master was a miser, as I have said, and he and his help ate supper
with no other light than that of the fire, for he would not furnish
candles. Tom did not like this, and one night he thrust his spoon into
the middle of the soup dish where the soup was hottest and clapped a
spoonful into his master's mouth.
"You rascal!" his master cried, "my mouth is all burned."
"Then why do you keep the house so dark?" Tom asked. "I can't half see,
and what wonder is it if I missed the way to my own mouth and got the
spoon in your mouth, instead?"
After that they always had a candle on the table at supper, for his
master would feed no more in the dark while Tom was present.
One day a butcher came and bought a fine fat calf from Tom's master. He
tied its legs, took it on the horse's back in front of him, and off he
went.
"Master," Tom said, "what do you say to playing a joke on that fellow?
With your leave I'll get that calf away from him before he has gone two
miles, and he won't know what has become of it either."
"You can try," the master said, "but I don't believe you can do it."
So Tom went into the house, got a pretty shoe with a silver buckle to it
that belonged to the servant maid and ran across a field till he got
ahead of the butcher. He threw the shoe into the middle of the highway
and hid behind a hedge. The butcher came riding along with the calf
before him.
"Hey!" he said, "there's a fine lady's shoe. If it wasn't that this calf
makes it a great trouble to get off and on I'd alight and pick the shoe
up. But after all what is the use of one shoe without its neighbor?"
On he rode and let it lie. Tom then slipped out from behind the hedge,
secured the shoe, and ran across the fields till he again got before the
butcher. He threw the shoe into the middle of the road and once more
crouched behind the hedge and waited.
Along came the butcher, and saw the shoe. "Now," he said, "I can have a
pair of good shoes for the lifting. I'll take them home and put my old
woman in a good humor for once."
Down he got, lifted off the calf, tied his horse to the hedge, and ran
back, thinking to get the other shoe. While he was gone Tom picked up
the calf and the shoe and tramped off home.
The butcher did not find the shoe he went back to get, and when he
returned to his horse the other shoe was gone and so was his calf. "No
doubt the calf has broken the rope that was about its feet," he said,
"and has run into the fields."
So he spent a long time searching for it amongst the hedges and ditches.
Finally he returned to Tom's master and told him a long story of how he
had lost the calf by means of a pair of shoes, which he believed the
devil himself must have dropped in the roadway and had picked up later
and the calf too.
"I suppose I ought to be thankful," he said in concluding, "that I have
my old horse left to carry me home so that I don't have to walk."
"Wouldn't you like to buy another calf?" Tom asked.
"Why, yes," the butcher responded, "if you have one to sell."
Tom then brought from the barn the very calf that the butcher had lost,
but as Tom had made a fine white face on it with chalk and water, the
butcher did not recognize it. So the sale was made, its legs were tied
and it was hoisted onto the horse in front of the butcher. As soon as he
was gone, Tom told his master he believed he could get the calf again.
"Oh, no!" the farmer said, "you've fooled him once and he'll be on the
lookout for mischief now. But you can try if you want to."
Away ran Tom through the fields until he got ahead of the butcher near
where he had taken the calf from him. There he hid behind the hedges and
as the butcher was passing he put his hand on his mouth and cried, "Baw,
baw!" like a calf.
When the butcher heard this he stopped his horse. "There's the calf I
lost," he said.
Down he got, lifted the calf from his horse to the ground, and scrambled
hastily through the hedge, thinking he would lay his hands on the lost
calf in a few moments. But as he went through one part of the hedge, Tom
went through another, got the calf on his back and hurried through the
fields home.
The poor butcher spent his time in vain running hither and thither
seeking his calf. At last he returned to his horse, and when he found
his other calf gone he concluded the place was bewitched.
"Oh, misfortunate day!" he cried, "what shall I do now? and what'll Joan
say when I get home, for my money's gone, and the two calves are gone,
and I can't buy her the shawl I promised to get."
Back he went to the farmer lamenting his loss. But the farmer thought
the joke had been carried far enough now. He told him what had happened
and gave him his calf and the second payment of money. So the butcher
went off well satisfied, for he had had a good deal of fun for his
trouble, had he not?