Wise Men of Gotham
neck, saying, You must first go to Loughborough, and then to Leicester, and at Newark is our landlord; then commend us unto him, and there is his due. The hare, as soon as he got out of their hands, ran a quite contrary way. Some said, thou must first go to Loughborough; others said. let the hare alone, for he can tell a nearer way than the best of us; let him go.
TALE IX.
A man of Gotham that went mowing in the meadow found a large grasshopper. He immediately threw down his scythe, and ran home to his neighbours, and said, That the devil was there in the field, and was hopping amongst the grass. Then was every man ready, with their clubs and staves, halberts and other weapons, to kill the grasshopper. When they came almost to the place where the grasshoper was, said one to the other, let every one cross himself from the devil, for we will not meddle with him; so they returned again, and said, we were blest this day that we went no farther. O ye cowards, said he that left his scythe in the meadow, help me to fetch my
