cannot sing twice for nothing; you must give me something if I do." "Wife," said the shoemaker, "run upstairs into the workshop, and bring me down the best pair of new red shoes you can find." So his wife ran and fetched them. "Here, my pretty bird," said the shoe maker, "take these shoes; but pray sing that song again." The bird came down, and taking the shoes in his left claw, flew up again to the house-top, and sang:
"My mother slew her little son;
My father thought me lost and gone:
But pretty Margery pitied me,
And laid me under the juniper tree;
And now I rove so merrily,
As over the hills and dales I fly:
Oh what a fine bird am I!"
And when he had done singing, he flew away, holding the shoes in one claw and the chain in the other. And he flew a long, long way off, till at last he came to a mill. The mill was going "Clipper, clapper! clipper, clapper!" and in the mill were twenty millers, who were all hard at work hewing a millstone; and the millers hewed, "Hick, hack! hick, hack!" and the mill went on, "Clipper, clapper! clipper, clapper!"
So the bird perched upon a linden tree close by the mill, and began its song:
"My mother slew her little son;
My father thought me lost and gone:"
here two of the millers left off their work and listened:
"But pretty Margery pitied me,
And laid me under the juniper tree;"
now all the millers but one looked up and left their work;
