Once upon a time there was a girl who was married to a husband that she
never saw. And the way this was, was that he was only at home at night,
and would never have any light in the house. The girl thought that was
funny, and all her friends told her there must be something wrong with
her husband, some great deformity that made him want not to be seen.
Well, one night when he came home she suddenly lit a candle and saw him.
He was handsome enough to make all the women of the world fall in love
with him. But scarcely had she seen him when he began to change into a
bird, and then he said: "Now you have seen me, you shall see me no more,
unless you are willing to serve seven years and a day for me, so that I
may become a man once more." Then he told her to take three feathers
from under his side, and whatever she wished through them would come to
pass. Then he left her at a great house to be laundry-maid for seven
years and a day.
And the girl used to take the feathers and say:
"By virtue of my three feathers may the copper be lit, and the clothes
washed, and mangled, and folded, and put away to the missus's
satisfaction."
And then she had no more care about it. The feathers did the rest, and
the lady set great store by her for a better laundress she had never
had. Well, one day the butler, who had a notion to have the pretty
laundry-maid for his wife, said to her, he should have spoken before but
he did not want to vex her. "Why should it when I am but a
fellow-servant?" the girl said. And then he felt free to go on, and
explain he had £70 laid by with the master, and how would she like him
for a husband.
And the girl told him to fetch her the money, and he asked his master
for it, and brought it to her. But as they were going upstairs, she
cried, "O John, I must go back, sure I've left my shutters undone, and
they'll be slashing and banging all night."
The butler said, "Never you trouble, I'll put them right." and he ran
back, while she took her feathers, and said: "By virtue of my three
feathers may the shutters slash and bang till morning, and John not be
able to fasten them nor yet to get his fingers free from them."
And so it was. Try as he might the butler could not leave hold, nor yet
keep the shutters from blowing open as he closed them. And he _was_
angry, but could not help himself, and he did not care to tell of it and
get the laugh on him, so no one knew.
Then after a bit the coachman began to notice her, and she found he had
some £40 with the master, and he said she might have it if she would
take him with it.
So after the laundry-maid had his money in her apron as they went
merrily along, she stopt, exclaiming: "My clothes are left outside, I
must run back and bring them in." "Stop for me while I go; it is a cold
frost night," said William, "you'd be catching your death." So the girl
waited long enough to take her feathers out and say, "By virtue of my
three feathers may the clothes slash and blow about till morning, and
may William not be able to take his hand from them nor yet to gather
them up." And then she was away to bed and to sleep.
The coachman did not want to be every one's jest, and he said nothing.
So after a bit the footman comes to her and said he: "I have been with
my master for years and have saved up a good bit, and you have been
three years here, and must have saved up as well. Let us put it
together, and make us a home or else stay on at service as pleases you."
Well, she got him to bring the savings to her as the others had, and
then she pretended she was faint, and said to him: "James, I feel so
queer, run down cellar for me, that's a dear, and fetch me up a drop of
brandy." Now no sooner had he started than she said: "By virtue of my
three feathers may there be slashing and spilling, and James not be able
to pour the brandy straight nor yet to take his hand from it until
morning."
And so it was. Try as he might James could not get his glass filled, and
there was slashing and spilling, and right on it all, down came the
master to know what it meant!
So James told him he could not make it out, but he could not get the
drop of brandy the laundry-maid had asked for, and his hand would shake
and spill everything, and yet come away he could not.
This got him in for a regular scrape, and the master when he got back to
his wife said: "What has come over the men, they were all right until
that laundry-maid of yours came. Something is up now though. They have
all drawn out their pay, and yet they don't leave, and what can it be
anyway?"
But his wife said she could not hear of the laundry-maid being blamed,
for she was the best servant she had and worth all the rest put
together.
So it went on until one day as the girl stood in the hall door, the
coachman happened to say to the footman: "Do you know how that girl
served me, James?" And then William told about the clothes. The butler
put in, "That was nothing to what she served me," and he told of the
shutters clapping all night.
Just then the master came through the hall, and the girl said: "By
virtue of my three feathers may there be slashing and striving between
master and men, and may all get splashed in the pond."
And so it was, the men fell to disputing which had suffered the most by
her, and when the master came up all would be heard at once and none
listened to him, and it came to blows all round, and the first they knew
they had shoved one another into the pond.
When the girl thought they had had enough she took the spell off, and
the master asked her what had begun the row, for he had not heard in the
confusion.
And the girl said: "They were ready to fall on any one; they'd have beat
me if you had not come by."
So it blew over for that time, and through her feathers she made the
best laundress ever known. But to make a long story short, when the
seven years and a day were up, the bird-husband, who had known her
doings all along, came after her, restored to his own shape again. And
he told her mistress he had come to take her from being a servant, and
that she should have servants under her. But he did not tell of the
feathers.
And then he bade her give the men back their savings.
"That was a rare game you had with them," said he, "but now you are
going where there is plenty, leave them each their own." So she did; and
they drove off to their castle, where they lived happy ever after.