as he carried it in his arms, and had thus
become the possessor of a wardrobe in addition
to the previous booty; the stern ruffians
murmured applause, and stating their opinion
that the time of apprenticeship should be
regulated by degrees of proficiency, not by
length of service, declared that Slyboots
had now fully served his time. He therefore
bade them farewell, and proceeded to his kind
uncle, who, rejoicing to find that he had fully
realised the promise of his youth, at once
placed in his hand a large sum of money, that
he might start in business with capital as
well as talent.

How is life regulated by accident! Scarcely
had Slyboots left his uncle's home, than an
event occurred which caused him to abandon
the profession in which he had hoped to
make so brilliant a figure. Stopping at a
public-house to take a glass of beer, his bag
of gold attracted the eyes of the respectable
widow by whom the business of the establishment
was conducted. She at once explained
to him that a male superintendent would
give an improved turn to her affairs, and
that if he would marry her daughter, and
take the management of the public-house
into his own hands, he would confer a real
obligation. Slyboots jumped at the offer,
and abandoning all thoughts of the heath
and the forest, espoused the blushing maiden,
and employed his capital "in the public
line."

His old friends the robbers soon heard of
his whereabout, and two of them determined
to pay him a visit. Like many other persons,
who are not robbers, they contrived to make
their call at a time when they were sure not
to find their friend at home, and entering the
house with an easy air, coolly told the ladies
that they were the brothers of mine host,
respectively belonging to the gentle crafts of
joiner and wheelwright. They were very sorry
their brother was out, but really they could
not stop, and so they departed, followed by
the curtsies of the ladies, but not until they
had observed a huge fatted hog hanging up
in the cart-house. This they removed at the
earliest opportunity, and when Slyboots,
returning, heard of these brothers and missed
the hog, he at once bethought him of his
comrades on the heath.

Immediate pursuit was resolved upon, and
Slyboots, plunging into the neighbouring
forest, soon overtook the robbers. One had
sat down to rest, while the other, with
the hog on his back, was groping his way
through the darkness.

"Let rne have a turn, now, comrade," said
Slyboots to the foremost robber, "thou hast
carried that load long enough."

"Thou wast ever a kind comrade," was the
answer of the robber, who of course thought
that he was addressing his companion, and,
without hesitation, he placed the hog on the
shoulders of Slyboots, who at once set off in
a homeward direction.

When the hindmost robber had overtaken
the foremost one, a little conversation
revealed the true state of affairs; and they
both cried out with wrath, not unqualified by
admiration: "Slyboots is still Slyboots, after
all!" However, no time was to be lost, so at
once, there and then— the two robbers
disguised themselves as women, and putting
their best feet foremost, were enabled to
meet Slyboots at the entrance to his own
premises. The source of the female attire,
thus rapidly put on, is not recorded in
Lithuanian history; but the disguise must
have been most efficient, as it caused even
the shrewd Slyboots to take one of the
robbers for his mother-in-law, and the other
for his wife.

"Well, hast thou got the hog?" said the
more strapping of the two.

"Marry have I, mother-in-law," responded
Slyboots.

"Then give it us, and we'll take it in-doors,
while thou lockest up everything outside,"
was the artful suggestion, which was answered
by another transfer of the hog.

When Slyboots had locked up every gate
and door, he walked into the house, and not
perceiving the hog, asked his wife where she
had put it.

"The hog," said she, "didst thou get it,
then?"

"Of course, I did," said he.

"I," said she, "have never clapped eyes
on it."

"Come, come, no nonsense," said he, "I
gave it into thine own hands at the gate
yard."

"Why, by my halidom, I have never
crossed the threshold of the door!"

The acute mind of Slyboots was not long in
divining the truth; and as he had been rather
caustic in his remarks, when the ladies had
allowed the prize to be carried off by the
robbers in the first instance, he set out in
pursuit of the marauders with even more than
his wonted rapidity, in order to avoid an
infliction of the lex talionis.

When he reached the forest, he found that
the luxurious rascals had lighted a fire to
broil a ham, which they had already cut from
the hog. As the fire had got low, they were
searching for wood, each in a different direction,
and his mode of operation was at once
decided. Taking a stick in his hand, he
administered a hearty thrashing to the stump
of a tree, shouting all the time, in piteous
tones, "I won't do it again; I won't do it
again!" Each robber, hearing the thwacks
and the cries, concluded that his comrade was
overpowered, and on this hypothesis both ran
away. But Slyboots took up the hog, and
went home.

Chance brought the robbers once more
together.

"In good troth, thy hue must be of the
blackest and the bluest!" said the first, with
a derisive kind of pity.