I will wager you a hundred silver pieces that you can do nothing of the sort . ' ` Well , I will try it , anyway , ' replied the boy , and disappeared in the bushes . He ran fast till he entered a wood through which the shepherd must go , and then he stopped , and taking off one of his shoes smeared it with mud and set it in the path . When this was done he slipped behind a rock and waited . Very soon the man came up , and seeing the shoe lying there , he stooped and looked at it . ` It is a good shoe , ' he said to himself , ` but very dirty . Still , if I had the fellow , I would be at the trouble of cleaning it ' ; so he threw the shoe down again and went on . The Shifty Lad smiled as he heard him , and , picking up the shoe , he crept round by a short way and laid the other shoe on the path . A few minutes after the shepherd arrived , and beheld the second shoe lying on the path . ` Why , that is the fellow of the dirty shoe ! ' he exclaimed when he saw it . ' I will go back and pick up the other one , and then I shall have a pair of good shoes , ' and he put the sheep on the grass and returned to fetch the shoe . Then the Shifty Lad put on his shoes , and , picking up the sheep , carried it home . And the Black Rogue paid him the hundred marks of his wager . When the shepherd reached the farmhouse that night he told his tale to his master , who scolded him for being stupid and careless , and bade him go the next day to the mountain and fetch him a kid , and he would send that as a wedding gift . But the Shifty Lad was on the look-out , and hid himself in the wood , and the moment the man drew near with the kid on his shoulders began to bleat like a sheep , and no one , not even the sheep 's own mother , could have told the difference . ` Why , it must have got its feet loose , and have strayed after all , ' thought the man ; and he put the kid on the grass and hurried off in the direction of the bleating . Then the boy ran back and picked up the kid , and took it to the Black Gallows Bird . The shepherd could hardly believe his eyes when he returned from seeking the sheep and found that the kid had vanished . He was afraid to go home and tell the same tale that he had told yesterday ; so he searched the wood through and through till night was nearly come .
Then he felt that there was no help for it , and he must go home and confess XXXXX his master .
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