Deulin Charles
Johnny Nut and the Golden Goose
CHAPTER II
NEXT 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.
CHAPTER III
NOW, as Johnny strutted along, he heard jolly music and wedding bells, and saw a multitude of people.
It was a wedding party, outside a tavern; and the fiddlers were fiddling, and everybody dancing.
Johnny Nut went through the middle of them all, shouting: —
'There's another caught and done for!'
'Caught and done for! Meaning me!' says the gay bridegroom; and he tucked up his shirtsleeves to give Johnny one in the eye. But the bridesmaid, who did not want a quarrel, gave Johnny a push, and said to him —
'Idiot, say rather, "Let everybody follow a good example."'
It was all one to Johnny, and off he went, shouting —
'Let every one follow this good example!'
So he left the village, and he went, and went and better went, till he came to a house on fire.
The policeman had caught a poor tramp, whom he charged with burning the house.
'Let everyone follow this good example!' shouted Johnny, never thinking of anything but roast goose.
'What's that you say, you vagabond! You incite the populace to arson and fire-raising!' cries the policeman, who was by way of being à great lawyer.
Johnny trembled like an aspen-leaf.
'Say, "Heaven help you to put the fire out,"' whispered one of the firemen; and Johnny said so, and off he went, the old way, crying —
'Heaven help you to put the fire out!'
Now he passed a blacksmith's forge, and that blacksmith was as cross as two sticks, for he had been blowing the bellows for three hours, and could not make the fire burn.
Well, just when a little tiny blue flame burst forth, as little as a pussycat's tongue, what did the blacksmith hear but —
'Heaven put the fire out!'
Round he turned, pitched his hammer at Johnny, and knocked him down flat on the king's high way.