The Lilac Fairy Book | Page 9

he quickly let it down again.
'You can't imagine what a funny feeling hanging gives you,' murmured
the Shifty Lad, who looked rather purple in the face and spoke in an
odd voice. 'I don't think you have every tried it, or you wouldn't have
let me go up first. Why, it is the pleasantest thing I have ever done. I
was shaking my legs from sheer delight, and if you had been there you
would have shaken your legs too.'
'Well, let me try, if it is so nice,' answered the Black Rogue. 'But be
sure you tie the knot securely, for I don't want to fall down and break
my neck.'
'Oh, I will see to that!' replied the Shifty Lad. 'When you are tired, just
whistle, and I'll let you down.'
So the Black Rogue was drawn up, and as soon as he was as high as the
rope would allow him to go the Shifty Lad called to him:
'Don't forest to whistle when you want to come down; but if you are
enjoying yourself as I did, shake your legs.'

And in a moment the Black Rogue's legs began to shake and to kick,
and the Shifty Lad stood below, watching him and laughing heartily.
'Oh, how funny you are! If you could only see yourself! Oh, you ARE
funny! But when you have had enough, whistle and you shall be let
down'; and he rocked again with laughter.
But no whistle came, and soon the legs ceased to shake and to kick, for
the Black Gallows Bird was dead, as the Shifty Lad intended he should
be.
Then he went home to the Black Rogue's wife, and told her that her
husband was dead, and that he was ready to marry her if she liked. But
the woman had been fond of the Black Rogue, thief though he was, and
she shrank from the Shifty Lad in horror, and set the people after him,
and he had to fly to another part of the country where none knew of his
doings.
Perhaps if the Shifty Lad's mother knew anything of this, she may have
thought that by this time her son might be tired of stealing, and ready to
try some honest trade. But in reality he loved the tricks and danger, and
life would have seemed very dull without them. So he went on just as
before, and made friends whom he taught to be as wicked as himself,
till they took to robbing the king's storehouses, and by the advice of the
Wise Man the king sent out soldiers to catch the band of thieves.
For a long while they tried in vain to lay hands on them. The Shifty Lad
was too clever for them all, and if they laid traps he laid better ones. At
last one night he stole upon some soldiers while they were asleep in a
barn and killed them, and persuaded the villagers that if THEY did not
kill the other soldiers before morning they would certainly be killed
themselves. Thus it happened that when the sun rose not a single
soldier was alive in the village.
Of course this news soon reached the king's ears, and he was very
angry, and summoned the Wise Man to take counsel with him. And this
was the counsel of the Wise Man--that he should invite all the people in
the countryside to a ball, and among them the bold and impudent thief

would be sure to come, and would be sure to ask the king's daughter to
dance with him.
'Your counsel is good,' said the king, who made his feast and prepared
for his ball; and all the people of the countryside were present, and the
Shifty Lad came with them.
When everyone had eaten and drunk as much as they wanted they went
into the ballroom. There was a great throng, and while they were
pressing through the doorway the Wise Man, who had a bottle of black
ointment hidden in his robes, placed a tiny dot on the cheek of the
Shifty Lad near his ear. The Shifty Lad felt nothing, but as he
approached the king's daughter to ask her to be his partner he caught
sight of the black dot in a silver mirror. Instantly he guessed who had
put it there and why, but he said nothing, and danced so beautifully that
the princess was quite delighted with him. At the end of the dance he
bowed low to his partner and left her, to mingle with the crowd that
was filling the doorway. As he passed the Wise Man he contrived not
only to steal the bottle but to place two black dots on his face, and one
on the faces of twenty