smith's forge, take my best coach, and bring home the bridegroom." He
was very unwilling to do this, he was so proud, but he did not wish to
refuse. When he came to the forge he saw the prince standing at the
door, and beckoned him over to the coach. "Are you the fellow," says he,
"that made them crowns?" "Yes," says the other. "Then," says he, "maybe
you'd give yourself a brushing, and get into that coach; the King wants
to see you. I pity the princess." The young prince got into the
carriage, and while they were on the way he opened the snuff-box, and
out walked _Seven Inches_, and stood on his thigh. "Well," says he,
"what trouble is on you now?" "Master," says the other, "please to let
me back in my forge, and let this carriage be filled with
paving-stones." No sooner said than done. The prince was sitting in his
forge, and the horses wondered what was after happening to the carriage.
When they came to the palace yard the King himself opened the carriage
door to pay respect to the new son-in-law. As soon as he turned the
handle a shower of stones fell on his powdered wig and his silk coat,
and down he fell under them. There was great fright, and some tittering,
and the King, after he wiped the blood from his forehead, looked very
cross at the eldest prince. "My liege," says he, "I'm very sorry for
this _accidence_, but I'm not to blame. I saw the young smith get into
the carriage, and we never stopped a minute since." "It's uncivil you
were to him. Go," says he to the other prince, "and bring the young
prince here, and be polite." "Never fear," says he.
But there's some people that couldn't be good-natured if they were to be
made heirs of Damer's estate. Not a bit civiller was the new messenger
than the old, and when the King opened the carriage door a second time
it's a shower of mud that came down on him; and if he didn't fume and
splutter and shake himself it's no matter. "There's no use," says he,
"going on this way. The fox never got a better messenger than himself."
So he changed his clothes and washed himself, and out he set to the
smith's forge. Maybe he wasn't polite to the young prince, and asked him
to sit along with himself. The prince begged to be allowed to sit in the
other carriage, and when they were half-way he opened his snuff-box.
"Master," says he, "I'd wished to be dressed now according to my rank."
"You shall be that," says _Seven Inches_. "And now I'll bid you
farewell. Continue as good and kind as you always were; love your wife,
and that's all the advice I'll give you." So _Seven Inches_ vanished;
and when the carriage door was opened in the yard, out walks the prince,
as fine as hands and pins could make him, and the first thing he did was
to run over to his bride and embrace her very heartily.
Everyone had great joy but the two other princes. There was not much
delay about the marriages that were all celebrated on the same day, and
the youngest prince and princess were the happiest married couple you
ever heard of in a story.
PATRICK KENNEDY.
The Grateful Beasts
There was once a young man on his way to a fair with five shillings in
his pocket. As he went he saw some little boys beating a poor mouse they
had just caught.
"Come, boys," says he, "do not be so cruel. Sell me your mouse for
sixpence, and go off and buy some sweets."
They gave him the mouse, and he let the poor little beast go. He had not
gone far when he met a fresh set of boys teasing the life out of a poor
weasel.
Well, he bought him off for a shilling and let him go. The third
creature he saved, from a crowd of cruel young men, was an ass, but he
had to give a whole half-crown to get him off. "Now," says poor Neddy,
"you may as well take me with you. I'll be of some use, I think, for
when you are tired you can get up on my back." "With all my heart," said
Jack, for that was the young man's name.
The day was very hot, and the boy sat under a tree to enjoy the shade.
As soon as he did he fell asleep, but he was soon awakened by a
wicked-looking giant and his two servants. "How dare you let your ass
trespass in my field," cried he, "and do such mischief." "I had no
notion that he had done anything of the kind." "No notion? I'll notion
you, then. Bring out that chest," said he to one of his servants, and
before you could wink they had tied the poor boy, hand and foot, with a
stout rope, thrown him into the chest, and tossed the chest into the
river. Then they all went away but poor Neddy, till who should come up
but the weasel and the mouse, and they asked him what was the matter. So
the ass told them his story.
"Oh," said the weasel, "he must be the same boy that saved the mouse and
myself. Had he a brown patch in the arm of his coat?" "The very same."
"Come, then," said the weasel, "and let us try and get him out of the
river." "By all means," said the others. So the weasel got on the ass's
back and the mouse got into his ear, and away they went. They had not
gone far when they saw the chest, which had been stopped among the
rushes at the end of a little island.
In they went, and the weasel and the mouse gnawed the rope till they had
set their master free.
Well, they were all very glad, and were having a great talk about the
giant and his men, when what should the weasel spy but an egg, with the
most lovely colours on the shell, lying down in the shallow water. It
was not long before he had fished it out, and Jack kept turning it round
and round and praising it.
"Oh, my dear friends," said he to the ass, the mouse, and the weasel,
"how I wish it was in my power to thank you as I should like. How I wish
I had a fine house and grounds to take you to where you could live in
peace and plenty."
The words were hardly out of his mouth when he and the beasts found
themselves standing on the steps of a grand castle, with the finest lawn
before it that you ever saw. There was no one inside or outside it to
keep it from them, so in they went, and there they lived as happy as
kings.
Jack was standing at his gate one day as three merchants were passing by
with their goods packed on the backs of horses and mules.
"Bless our eyes," cried they, "what does this mean? There was no castle
or lawn here when we went by last time."
"That is true," cried Jack, "but you shall not be the worse for it. Take
your beasts into the yard at the back of the house and give them a good
feed, and if you can spare the time stay and take a bit of dinner with
me."
They were only too glad to do so; but after dinner Jack was so foolish
as to show them his painted egg, and to tell them that you had only to
wish for a thing when you had it in your hand and your wish was granted.
He proved it to be so. Then one of his guests put a powder into Jack's
next glass of wine, and when he awoke he found himself in the island
again, with his patched coat on him, and his three friends in front of
him, all looking very downhearted. "Ah, Master," said the weasel, "you
will never be wise enough for the tricky people that are in the world."
"Where did these thieves say they lived, and what names did they say
they were called by?" Jack scratched his head, and after a while was
able to tell them.
"Come, Neddy," says the weasel, "let us be jogging. It would not be safe
for the master to go with us; but if we have luck we will bring him the
egg back after all."
So the weasel got on the ass's back and the mouse got into his ear, and
away they went till they reached the house of the head rogue. The mouse
went in, and the ass and the weasel hid themselves in a copse outside.
The mouse soon came back to them.
"Well, what news?" said they.
"Dull news enough; he has the egg in a low chest in his bedroom, and the
door is strongly locked and bolted, and a pair of cats with fiery eyes
are chained to the chest watching it night and day."
"Let us go back," said the ass; "we can do nothing." "Wait!" said the
weasel.
When bedtime came, said the weasel to the mouse: "Go in at the keyhole
and get behind the rogue's head, and stay there two or three hours
sucking his hair."
"What good would there be in that?" asked the ass. "Wait, and you'll
know!" said the weasel.
Next morning the merchant was quite mad to find the state his hair was
in.
"But I'll be a match for you to-night, my fine mouse," said he. So he
unchained the cats next night and made them sit by his bedside and
watch.
Just as he was dropping asleep the weasel and the mouse were outside the
door, and gnawing away till they had scooped out a hole in the bottom of
it. In went the mouse, and it was not long before he had the egg quite
safe.
They were soon on the road again; the mouse in the ass's ear, the weasel
on his back, and the egg in the weasel's mouth.
When they came to the river, and were swimming across, the ass began to
bray. "Hee-haw, hee-haw," cried he. "Is there anyone like me in all the
world? I am carrying the mouse and the weasel and the great enchanted
egg that can do anything. Why do you not praise me?"
But the mouse was asleep, and the weasel dared not open his mouth for
fear of dropping the egg. "I'll shake you all off, you thankless pack,
if you won't praise me," cried the ass, and the poor weasel forgot the
egg, and cried out: "Oh, don't, don't!" when down went the egg into the
deepest pool in the river. "Now you have done it," said the weasel, and
you may be sure the ass looked very foolish.
"Oh, what are we to do?" groaned he. "Keep a good heart," said the
weasel. Then looking down into the deep water, he cried: "Hear! all you
frogs and fish. There is a great army of storks and cranes coming to
take you all out and eat you up red-raw. Make haste! Make haste!" "Oh,
and what can we do?" cried they, coming up to the top. "Gather up the
stones from below and hand them to us, and we'll build a big wall on the
bank to defend you." So the fish and frogs fell to work like mad, and
were at it hard and fast, reaching up all the stones and pebbles they
found at the bottom of the pool.
At last a big frog came up with the egg in his mouth, and when the
weasel had hold of it he climbed into a tree and cried out, "That will
do; the army has got a great fright at our walls, and they are all
running away." So the poor things were greatly relieved.
You may be sure that Jack jumped for joy to see his friends and the egg
again. They were soon back in their castle, and when Jack began to feel
lonely he did not find it hard to find a pretty lady to marry him, and
then they two and the three grateful beasts were as happy as the days
were long.
PATRICK KENNEDY.
The Lepracaun or Fairy Shoemaker
I.
Little Cowboy, what have you heard,
Up on the lonely rath's green mound?
Only the plaintive yellow bird
Sighing in sultry fields around,
Chary, chary, chary, chee-ee!--
Only the grasshopper and the bee?--
"Tip-tap, rip-rap,
Tick-a-tack-too!
Scarlet leather, sewn together,
This will make a shoe.
Left, right, pull it tight;
Summer days are warm;
Underground in winter,
Laughing at the storm!"
Lay your ear close to the hill.
Do you not catch the tiny clamour,
Busy click of an elfin hammer,
Voice of the Lepracaun singing shrill
As he merrily plies his trade?
He's a span
And a quarter in height.
Get him in sight, hold him tight,
And you're a made
Man!
II.
You watch your cattle the summer day,
Sup on potatoes, sleep in the hay;
How would you like to roll in your carriage,
Look for a Duchess's daughter in marriage?
Seize the Shoemaker--then you may!
"Big boots a-hunting,
Sandals in the hall,
White for a wedding-feast,
Pink for a ball.
This way, that way,
So we make a shoe;
Getting rich every stitch,
Tick-tack-too!"
Nine-and-ninety treasure-crocks
This keen miser-fairy hath,
Hid in mountains, woods, and rocks,
Ruin and round-tow'r, cave and rath,
And where the cormorants build;
From times of old
Guarded by him;
Each of them fill'd
Full to the brim
With gold!
III.
I caught him at work one day, myself,
In the castle-ditch, where foxglove grows--
A wrinkled, wizen'd, and bearded Elf,
Spectacles stuck on his pointed nose,
Silver buckles to his hose,
Leather apron--shoe in his lap--
"Rip-rap, tip-tap,
Tick-tack-too!
(A grasshopper on my cap!
Away the moth flew!)
Buskins for a fairy prince,
Brogues for his son--
Pay me well, pay me well,
When the job is done!"
The rogue was mine, beyond a doubt.
I stared at him; he stared at me;
"Servant, Sir!" "Humph!" says he,
And pulled a snuff-box out.
He took a long pinch, look'd better pleased,
The queer little Lepracaun;
Offer'd the box with a whimsical grace--
Pouf! he flung the dust in my face,
And, while I sneezed,
Was gone!
WILLIAM ALLINGHAM.
Daniel O'Rourke
People may have heard of the renowned adventures of Daniel O'Rourke, but
how few are there who know that the cause of all his perils, above and
below, was neither more nor less than his having slept under the walls
of the Pooka's Tower. I knew the man well. He lived at the bottom of
Hungry Hill, just at the right-hand side of the road as you go towards
Bantry. An old man was he at the time he told me the story, with grey
hair and a red nose; and it was on the 25th of June, 1813, that I heard
it from his own lips, as he sat smoking his pipe under the old poplar
tree, on as fine an evening as ever shone from the sky. I was going to
visit the caves in Dursey Island, having spent the morning at
Glengariff.
"I am often axed to tell it, sir," said he, "so that this is not the
first time. The master's son, you see, had come from beyond foreign
parts in France and Spain, as young gentlemen used to go before
Buonaparte or any such was heard of; and, sure enough, there was a
dinner given to all the people on the ground, gentle and simple, high
and low, rich and poor. The _ould_ gentlemen were the gentlemen, after
all, saving your honour's presence. They'd swear at a body a little, to
be sure, and, maybe, give one a cut of a whip now and then, but we were
no losers by it in the end; and they were so easy and civil, and kept
such rattling houses, and thousands of welcomes; and there was no
grinding for rent, and there was hardly a tenant on the estate that did
not taste of his landlord's bounty often and often in a year; but now
it's another thing. No matter for that, sir, for I'd better be telling
you my story.
"Well, we had everything of the best, and plenty of it; and we ate, and
we drank, and we danced, and the young master, by the same token, danced
with Peggy Barry, from the Bohereen--a lovely young couple they were,
though they are both low enough now. To make a long story short, I got,
as a body may say, the same thing as tipsy almost, for I can't remember,
ever at all, no ways, how it was I left the place; only I did leave it,
that's certain. Well, I thought, for all that, in myself, I'd just step
to Molly Cronohan's, the fairy woman, to speak a word about the bracket
heifer that was bewitched; and so, as I was crossing the stepping-stones
of the ford of Ballyashenogh, and was looking up at the stars, and
blessing myself--for why? it was Lady-day--I missed my foot, and souse I
fell into the water. 'Death alive!' thought I, 'I'll be drowned now!'
However, I began swimming, swimming, swimming away for dear life, till
at last I got ashore, somehow or other, but never the one of me can tell
how, upon a _dissolute_ island.
"I wandered and wandered about there, without knowing where I wandered,
until at last I got into a big bog. The moon was shining as bright as
day, or your fair lady's eyes, sir (with your pardon for mentioning
her), and I looked east and west, north and south, and every way, and
nothing did I see but bog, bog, bog. I could never find out how I got
into it; and my heart grew cold with fear, for sure and certain I was
that it would be my _berrin'_ place. So I sat upon a stone, which, as
good luck would have it, was close by me, and I began to scratch my
head, and sing the ULLAGONE--when all of a sudden the moon grew black,
and I looked up and saw something for all the world as if it was moving
down between me and it, and I could not tell what it was. Down it came
with a pounce, and looked at me full in the face; and what was it but an
eagle?--as fine a one as ever flew from the kingdom of Kerry! So he
looked at me in the face, and says he to me, 'Daniel O'Rourke,' says he,
'how do you do?' 'Very well, I thank you, sir,' says I; 'I hope you're
well'; wondering out of my senses all the time how an eagle came to
speak like a Christian. 'What brings you here, Dan?' says he. 'Nothing
at all, sir,' says I, 'only I wish I was safe home again.' 'Is it out of
the island you want to go, Dan?' says he. ''Tis, sir,' says I; so I up
and told him how I had taken a drop too much, and fell into the water;
how I swam to the island; and how I got into the bog and did not know my
way out of it. 'Dan,' says he, after a minute's thought, 'though it is
very improper of you to get drunk on a Lady-day, yet, as you are a
decent sober man, who 'tends mass well, and never fling stones at me or
mine, nor cries out after one in the field, my life for yours,' says he;
'so get up on my back, and grip me well for fear you'd fall off, and
I'll fly you out of the bog.' 'I am afraid,' says I, 'your honour's
making game of me; for whoever heard of riding a-horseback on an eagle
before?' ''Pon the honour of a gentleman,' says he, putting his right
foot on his breast, 'I am quite in earnest; and so now either take my
offer or starve in the bog--besides I see that your weight is sinking
the stone.'
"It was true enough, as he said, for I found the stone every minute
going from under me. I had no choice; so, thinks I to myself, faint
heart never won fair lady, and this is fair persuadance. 'I thank your
honour,' says I, 'for the loan of your civility; and I'll take your kind
offer.' I therefore mounted on the back of the eagle, and held him tight
enough by the throat, and up he flew in the air like a lark. Little I
knew the trick he was going to serve me. Up, up, up--God knows how far
he flew. 'Why, then,' said I to him--thinking he did not know the right
road home--very civilly, because why? I was in his power entirely;
'sir,' says I, 'please your honour's glory, and with humble submission
to your better judgment, if you'd fly down a bit, you're now just over
my cabin, and I could be put down there, and many thanks to your
worship.'
"'_Arrah_, Dan,' says he, 'do you think me a fool? Look down in the next
field, and don't you see two men and a gun? By my word, it would be no
joke to shoot this way, to oblige a drunken blackguard that I picked up
off a _could_ stone in a bog.' 'Bother you,' says I to myself, but I
did not speak out, for where was the use? Well, sir, up he kept flying,
flying, and I asking him every minute to fly down, and all to no use.
'Where in the world are you going, sir?' says I to him. 'Hold your
tongue, Dan,' says he, 'and mind your own business, and don't be
interfering with the business of other people.' 'Faith, this is my
business, I think,' says I. 'Be quiet, Dan!' says he: so I said no more.
"At last, where should we come to but to the moon itself. Now, you can't
see it from this, but there is, or there was in my time, a reaping-hook
sticking out of the side of the moon, this way (drawing the figure thus
on the ground with the end of his stick).
"'Dan,' says the eagle, 'I'm tired with this long fly; I had no notion
'twas so far.' 'And my lord, sir,' says I, 'who in the world _axed_ you
to fly so far--was it I? Did not I beg and pray and beseech you to stop
half an hour ago?' 'There's no use talking, Dan,' said he; 'I'm tired
bad enough, so you must get off, and sit down on the moon until I rest
myself.' 'Is it sit down on the moon?' said I; 'is it upon that little
round thing, then? Why, then, sure, I'd fall off in a minute, and be
_kilt_ and spilt, and smashed all to bits; you are a vile deceiver--so
you are.' 'Not at all, Dan,' says he; 'you can catch fast hold of the
reaping-hook that's sticking out of the side of the moon, and 'twill
keep you up.' 'I won't, then,' said I. 'Maybe not,' said he, quite
quiet. 'If you don't, my man, I shall just give you a shake, and one
slap of my wing, and send you down to the ground, where every bone in
your body will be smashed as small as a drop of dew on a cabbage-leaf
in the morning.' 'Why, then, I'm in a fine way,' said I to myself, 'ever
to have come along with the likes of you'; and so, giving him a hearty
curse in Irish, for fear he'd know what I said, I got off his back with
a heavy heart, took hold of the reaping-hook and sat down upon the moon,
and a mighty cold seat it was, I can tell you that.
"When he had me there fairly landed, he turned about on me, and said,
'Good morning to you, Daniel O'Rourke,' said he; 'I think I've nicked
you fairly now. You robbed my nest last year' ('twas true enough for
him, but how he found it out is hard enough to say), 'and in return you
are freely welcome to cool your heels dangling upon the moon like a
cockthrow.'
"'Is that all, and is this how you leave me, you brute, you,' says I.
'You ugly unnatural _baste_, and is this the way you serve me at last?
Bad luck to yourself, with your hook'd nose, and to all your breed, you
blackguard.' 'Twas all to no manner of use; he spread out his great big
wings, burst out a laughing, and flew away like lightning. I bawled
after him to stop; but I might have called and bawled for ever, without
his minding me. Away he went, and I never saw him from that day to
this--sorrow fly away with him! You may be sure I was in a disconsolate
condition, and kept roaring out for the bare grief, when all at once a
door opened right in the middle of the moon, creaking on its hinges as
if it had not been opened for a month before--I suppose they never
thought of greasing them--and out there walks--who do you think but the
man in the moon himself? I knew him by his bush.
"'Good morrow to you, Daniel O'Rourke,' says he, 'how do you do?' 'Very
well, thank your honour,' says I. 'I hope your honour's well.' 'What
brought you here, Dan?' said he. So I told him how I was a little
overtaken in liquor at the master's, and how I was cast on a _dissolute_
island, and how I lost my way in the bog, and the thief of an eagle
promised to fly me out of it, and how, instead of that, he had fled me
up to the moon.
"'Dan,' said the man in the moon, taking a pinch of snuff, when I was
done, 'you must not stay here.' 'Indeed, sir,' says I, ''tis much
against my will that I'm here at all; but how am I to go back?' 'That's
your business,' said he; 'Dan, mine is to tell you that you must not
stay, so be off in less than no time.' 'I'm doing no harm,' said I,
'only holding on hard by the reaping-hook lest I fall off.' 'That's what
you must not do, Dan,' says he. 'Pray, sir,' says I, 'may I ask how many
you are in family that you would not give a poor traveller lodging? I'm
sure 'tis not often you're troubled with strangers coming to see you,
for 'tis a long way.' 'I'm by myself, Dan,' says he, 'but you'd better
let go the reaping-hook.' 'Faith, and with your leave,' says I, 'I'll
not let go the grip, and the more you bids me the more I won't let
go--so I will.' 'You had better, Dan,' says he again. 'Why, then, my
little fellow,' says I, taking the whole weight of him with my eye from
head to foot, 'there are two words to that bargain; and I'll not
budge--you may, if you like.' 'We'll see how that is to be,' says he;
and back he went, giving the door such a great bang after him (for it
was plain he was huffed), that I thought the moon and all would fall
down with it.