No! he had not lost his wits, his father must and should go to the Squire, and ask for his daughter.
“Nay, but I tell you, I daren’t go to the Squire and be your spokesman; he who is so rich, and has so much money”, said the man.
Yes, there was no help for it, said the Master Thief; he should go whether he would or no; and if he did not go by fair means, he would soon make him go by foul. But the man was still loath to go; so he stepped after him, and rubbed him down with a good birch cudgel, and kept on till the man came crying and sobbing inside the Squire’s door.
“How now, my man! what ails you?” said the Squire. So he told him the whole story; how he had three sons who set off one day, and how he had given them leave to go whithersoever they would, and to follow whatever calling they chose. “And here now is the youngest come home, and has thrashed me till he has made me come to you and ask for your daughter for him to wife; and he bids me say, besides, that he’s a Master Thief.” And so he fell to crying and sobbing again.
“Never mind, my man”, said the Squire, laughing; “just go back and tell him from me, he must prove his skill first. If he can steal the roast from the spit in the kitchen on Sunday, while all the household are looking after it, he shall have my daughter. Just go and tell him that.”
So he went back and told the youth, who thought it would be an easy job. So he set about and caught three hares alive, and put them into a bag, and dressed himself in some old rags, until he looked so poor and filthy that it made one’s heart bleed to see; and then he stole into the passage at the back-door of the Squire’s house on the Sunday forenoon, with his bag, just like any other beggar-boy. But the Squire himself and all his household were in the kitchen watching the roast. Just as they were doing this, the youth let one hare go, and it set off and ran round and round the yard in front of the house.
“Oh, just look at that hare!” said the folk in the kitchen, and were all for running out to catch it.
Yes, the Squire saw it running too. “Oh, let it run”, said he; “there’s no use in thinking to catch a hare on the spring.”
A little while after, the youth let the second hare go, and they saw it in the kitchen, and thought it was the same they had seen before, and still wanted to run out and catch it; but the Squire said again it was no use. It was not long before the youth let the third hare go, and it set off and ran round and round the yard as the others before it. Now, they saw it from the kitchen, and still thought it was the same hare that kept on running about, and were all eager to be out after it.
“Well, it is a fine hare”, said the Squire; “come let’s see if we can’t lay our hands on it.”