So he went and went, longer than I can tell, till he came to where an old woman should feed her cow with grass that grew on her cottage-roof; but, instead of throwing down the grass to the cow, she was trying to drag the cow to the roof, but she could not, for all her pains. "Why, you fool," said the young man, "cut the grass, and throw it to the cow, to be sure." "Ay, I didn't think of that," said she. "That's fool number two, sure enough; but it will be long before I meet such another."
But again he went and went, till at last he saw a man who was trying to put his breeches on; but instead of holding them in his hand, he had propped them up with sticks, and was trying in vain to take a running jump into them. "Put in your legs, stupid!" said he. "That I didn't think of," said the man. "Here, indeed, is fool number three," said the young man. So he turned him homewards; came back to his sweetheart's cottage, and married Sally, the old woman's daughter.
For a Norwegian parallel story, see Norske Folkeeventyr samlede ved Asbjörnsen og Jörgen Moe, I., Christiania, 1843, No. 10. pp. 61-67., "Somme Kjærringer er slige."
GEORGE STEPHENS.
GOLDSMITH'S HISTORY OF MECKLENBURGH.
In Mr. Prior's Life of Goldsmith (vol. i. p. 388.), he observes that "one of his (Goldsmith's) labours, if we may believe the accounts of several personal acquaintances, for no certain evidence of the fact is at hand, and the work has been sought for in vain," was The History of Mecklenburgh, published for Newbery in February, 1762. This work, which seems to have eluded Mr. Prior's great diligence, I have now before me. It is in 8vo., to which a portrait of Queen Charlotte is prefixed, and is entitled, The History of Mecklenburgh from the first Settlement of the Vandals in that Country to the present Time, including a Period of about Three Thousand Years: London, printed for J. Newbery, at the Bible and Sun, in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1762. Pages, Preface, xiv.; History, 360. It is dedicated by Newbery to the Queen, in a short and rather elegant address, in which, as well as in the Preface which follows, there are marks of Goldsmith's style. The History itself appears to have been compiled in haste, and certainly bears no decisive internal evidence of having Goldsmith for its author. It is, however, rather superior to the ordinary run of similar compilations, and in some parts—(see account of the Vandals, pp. 11. to 22., and character of Gustavus Adolphus, p. 271.)—is not without proofs that the writer had powers of pleasing and vigorous composition. It may have proceeded from Goldsmith, and, as it is attributed to him by the accounts of several personal acquaintances, in all probability did so; though, without some indication of that kind, its authorship would not perhaps have been suspected. Mr. Forster (Life of Goldsmith, p. 241.) states that for the revision of this work he (Goldsmith) received 20l.: but is there any proof of this? Mr. Prior, as I understand him (see Life, Vol. i. p. 416.), merely supposes that he might receive that sum, from the prices paid for the other works of a similar kind.
JAMES CROSSLEY.
FOLK LORE.
Eagles' Feathers.
—Will any of the correspondents of "N. & Q." favour me with an explanation of the allusion in the following passage?