"Good day, master," said Little Freddy, as he pulled up and took off his hat.
"Good day," said the sheriff, "but when was I ever your master?"
"Oh yes," said Little Freddy, "don't you remember how I served you three years for three pence?"
"My goodness, now!" said the sheriff, "you have grown rich in a hurry, and pray, how was it that you got to be such a fine gentleman?"
"Oh, that is a long story," said Little Freddy.
"And are you so full of fun that you carry a fiddle about with you?" asked the sheriff.
"Yes, yes," said Freddy. "I have always had such a longing to get folk to dance. But the funniest thing of all is this gun, for it brings down almost anything that I aim at, however far it may be off. Do you see that magpie yonder, sitting in the spruce fir? What will you give me if I hit it as we stand here?"
"Well," said the sheriff, and he laughed when he said it, "I'll give you all the money I have in my pocket, and I'll go and fetch it when it falls," for he never thought it possible for any gun to carry so far.
But as the gun went off down fell the magpie, and into a great bramble thicket; and away went the sheriff up into the bramble after it, and he picked it up and held it up high for the lad to see. But just then Little Freddy began to play his fiddle, and the sheriff began to dance, and the thorns to tear him; but still the lad played on, and the sheriff danced, and cried, and begged, till his clothes flew to tatters, and he scarce had a thread to his back.
"Yes," said Little Freddy, "now I think you're about as ragged as I was when I left your service; so now you may get off with what you have."