But very early one morning, the sheriff with a party of fierce
soldiers rode through the woods, and between the fields, toward
Gotham. Just before they reached the town, they saw a queer sight. The
old men were rolling big stones up the hill, and all the young men
were looking on, and grunting very loudly.
The sheriff stopped his horses, and asked what they were doing.
"We are rolling stones up-hill to make the sun rise," said one of the
old men.
"You foolish fellow!" said the sheriff. "Don't you know that the sun
will rise without any help?"
"Ah! will it?" said the old man. "Well, I never thought of that. How
wise you are!"
"And what are _you_ doing?" said the sheriff to the young men.
"Oh, we do the grunting while our fathers do the working," they
answered.
"I see," said the sheriff. "Well, that is the way the world goes
every-where." And he rode on toward the town.
He soon came to a field where a number of men were building a stone
wall.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Why, master," they answered, "there is a cuck-oo in this field, and
we are building a wall around it so as to keep the bird from straying
away."
"You foolish fellows!" said the sheriff. "Don't you know that the bird
will fly over the top of your wall, no matter how high you build it?"
"Why, no," they said.
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