` Yes , ' said they , ` if you have a mind to take to the trade that we follow , you may have a place here . ' ` It 's all the same to me what trade I follow , ' said the youth , ` for when I came away from home my father gave me leave to take to any trade I fancied . ' ` Have you a fancy for stealing , then ? ' said the robbers . ` Yes , ' said the boy , for he thought that was a trade which would not take long to learn . Not very far off there dwelt a man who had three oxen , one of which he was to take to the town to sell . The robbers had heard of this , so they told the youth that if he were able to steal the ox from him on the way , without his knowing , and without doing him any harm , he should have leave to be their servant-man . So the youth set off , taking with him a pretty shoe with a silver buckle that was lying about in the house . He put this in the road by which the man must go with his ox , and then went into the wood and hid himself under a bush . When the man came up he at once saw the shoe . ` That 's a brave shoe , ' said he . ` If I had but the fellow to it , I would carry it home with me , and then I should put my old woman into a good humour for once . ' For he had a wife who was so cross and ill-tempered that the time between the beatings she gave him was very short . But then he bethought himself that he could do nothing with one shoe if he had not the fellow to it , so he journeyed onwards and let it lie where it was . Then the youth picked up the shoe and hurried off away through the wood as fast as he was able , to get in front of the man , and then put the shoe in the road before him again . When the man came with the ox and saw the shoe , he was quite vexed at having been so stupid as to leave the fellow to it lying where it was , instead of bringing it on with him . ' I will just run back again and fetch it now , ' he said to himself , ` and then I shall take back a pair of good shoes to the old woman , and she may perhaps throw a kind word to me for once . ' So he went and searched and searched for the other shoe for a long , long time , but no shoe was to be found , and at last he was forced to go back with the one which he had . In the meantime the youth had taken the ox and gone off with it . When the man got there and found that his ox was gone , he began to weep and wail , for he was afraid that when his old woman got to know she would be the death of him .
But all at once it came XXXXX his head to go home and get the other ox , and drive it to the town , and take good care that his old wife knew nothing about it .
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