it upon a tree, and calling his hounds, away he went, concluding what the woman would do, when he was out of sight. He got within-side the hedge, and lay close till she returned, and clawing off the butter put it into her basket, and was about to be gone; when leaping over the hedge, and catching fast hold of her, he cried out, "O thou wicked covetous wretch! Art thou robbing me before my face? How much more then wilt thou do behind my back? But I will be so revenged on thee that whenever any one sees a woman scratching of her breech, they shall cry, 'Butter will be cheap;'" (and from thence indeed, that saying came) and so throwing her down, in spite of all her pleading, that it was a pity good butter should be spoiled, her resisting and entreaties were all in vain; for turning up her clouts. he so bedaubed her buttocks and thighs, and called his hounds to lick it off, while the poor woman cried out lamentably, expecting every moment she should be devoured in the bellies of these loud-mouthed voracious curs; but he suffered them not to hurt her, only sending her away with a greasy pair of buttocks, which she fell to rubbing immediately, as also doubting, lest there had been some collops taken out of them.
CHAP. III.
The Courtier's Trick upon the Tinker, for complaining that he could get no drink at his house.
THE Tinker I have before mentioned, not knowing the house where he had been so nobly entertained, and which he only took for a vision, and often walking that road and crying old brass to mend, had been called in to work, and was often asked
