"'I did as you bade me, mother,' said the lad. 'I tied a withy round the pat and led it home; but it was all lost by the way.'
"'Oh!' said the goody, 'you were born a fool, and you'll die a fool. Now you are not one bit better off for all your toil; but had you been like other folk, you might have had both meat and brandy, and both hay and tools. If you don't know better how to behave, I don't know what's to be done with you. Maybe, you might be more like the rest of the world, and get some sense into you if you were married to some one who could settle things for you, and so I think you had better set off and see about finding a brave lass; but you must be sure you know how to behave well on the way and to greet folk prettily when you meet them.'
"'And pray what shall I say to them?' asked the lad.
"'To think of your asking that,' said his mother. 'Why, of course, you must bid them "God's Peace," Don't you know that?'
"'Yes! yes! I'll do as you bid,' said the lad; and so he set off on his way to woo him a wife.
"So, when he had gone a bit of the way, he met Greylegs, the wolf, with her seven cubs; and when he got so far as to be alongside them, he stood still and greeted them with 'God's Peace!' and when he had said that, he went home again.
"'I said it all as you bade me, mother,' said Matt.
"'And what was that?' asked his mother.
"'God's Peace,' said Matt.
"'And pray whom did you meet?'