is for sale.

GOODMAN. I think it would be a good exchange if I could get her for my goose.

TOLL-KEEPER. Well, it wouldn't be a bad thing.

GOODMAN. Then here is your goose.

TOLL-KEEPER. Here is your fowl.

[Enter a HOSTLER carrying a sack.]

GOODMAN (to Hostler). What have you in that sack, friend?

HOSTLER. Rotten apples—to feed the pigs with.

GOODMAN. Why, that will be a terrible waste. I should like to take them home to my wife.

HOSTLER (astonished). To your wife?

GOODMAN (nodding). You see, last year our old apple tree bore only one apple, which we kept in the cupboard till it was quite rotten. It was always property, my wife said.

HOSTLER. What will you give me for the sackful? Your wife would then have a great deal of property.

GOODMAN. Well, I will give you my fowl in exchange.

HOSTLER. Here is your sack of rotten apples.

GOODMAN. Here is your fowl.

[The Hostler goes with the fowl.]

TOLL-KEEPER. Toll, Goodman!

GOODMAN. I will not go to the Fair to-day. I have done a great deal of business, and I am tired. I will go back home.

SCENE III

TIME: two hours later.
PLACE: the old farmhouse.

[Enter the GOODMAN, carrying the sack. The WIFE waits for him in the spare room, because he has been away.]

GOODMAN. Well, Wife, I've made the exchange.

WIFE. Ah, well, you always understand what you're about.

GOODMAN. I got a cow in exchange for the horse.

WIFE. Good! Now we shall have plenty of milk and butter and cheese on the table. That was a fine exchange!

GOODMAN. Yes, but I changed the cow for a sheep.

WIFE. Ah, better still! We have just enough grass for a sheep.—Ewe's milk and cheese! Woolen jackets and stockings! The cow could not give all those. How you think of everything!

GOODMAN. But I changed the sheep for a goose.

WIFE. Then we shall have roast goose to eat this year. You dear Goodman, you are always thinking of something to please me!

GOODMAN. But I gave away the goose for a fowl.

WIFE. A fowl? Well, that was a good exchange. The fowl will lay eggs and hatch them. We shall soon have a poultry-yard. Ah, this is just what I was wishing for!

GOODMAN. Yes, but I exchanged the fowl for a sack of rotten apples.

WIFE. My dear, good husband! Now, I'll tell you something. Do you know, almost as soon as you left me this morning, I began thinking of what I could give you nice for supper. I thought of bacon with eggs and sweet herbs.

GOODMAN. But we have no sweet herbs.

WIFE (nodding). For that reason, I went over to our neighbor's and begged her to lend me a handful.

GOODMAN. That was right; they have plenty.

WIFE (nodding). So I thought, but she said, "Lend? I have nothing to lend, not even a rotten apple." Now I can lend her ten or the whole sackful. It makes me laugh to think of it. I am so glad.

GOODMAN. So you think what I did was right?

WIFE. What the Goodman does is always right.

THE CAT AND THE MOUSE

TIME: perhaps this minute.
PLACE: perhaps your own garret.

[MOTHER MOUSE and MISS MOUSE are in their