"Hullo, Rose-bush!" said the Jackal. "Have you seen a Goat anywhere as you came along?"
"Oh yes," replied the Goat, out of the roses; "I saw him just now, and he was talking to a big Wolf."
"Good heavens!" said the Jackal, "I must look sharp, if I want some Goat to-day," and off he galloped, in a great hurry.
In the evening he got to the Butcher's house.
"Hullo!" said the Butcher, "what have we here?" He knew that rose-bushes could not walk, but he could not make out what it was at all.
"Baa! baa!" said the Goat; "it's your grateful old Goat, come back to pay you for your kindness." And with these words, he spouted out all the sovereigns he found in the church, except the one he paid to the flower-man.
The Butcher was delighted to see so many sovereigns:
he asked no questions, because he thought it wiser. He
took the sovereigns, and found they were enough
to keep him all his life, without killing any
more goats. So he lived in peace, and
the Goat spent his remaining years
browsing comfortably in the
Butcher's paddock.
