Celtic Fairy Tales (19 page)

The marriage-day was fixed, and the invitations were sent out. The
wedding lasted for a year and a day. When the wedding was over, the
king's son brought home the bride, and when the time came a son was
born. The young woman sent for her eldest sister, Fair, to be with
her and care for her. One day, when Trembling was well, and when her
husband was away hunting, the two sisters went out to walk; and when
they came to the seaside, the eldest pushed the youngest sister in.
A great whale came and swallowed her.

The eldest sister came home alone, and the husband asked, "Where is
your sister?"

"She has gone home to her father in Ballyshannon; now that I am
well, I don't need her."

"Well," said the husband, looking at her, "I'm in dread it's my wife
that has gone."

"Oh! no," said she; "it's my sister Fair that's gone."

Since the sisters were very much alike, the prince was in doubt.
That night he put his sword between them, and said: "If you are my
wife, this sword will get warm; if not, it will stay cold."

In the morning when he rose up, the sword was as cold as when he put
it there.

It happened, when the two sisters were walking by the seashore, that
a little cowboy was down by the water minding cattle, and saw Fair
push Trembling into the sea; and next day, when the tide came in, he
saw the whale swim up and throw her out on the sand. When she was on
the sand she said to the cowboy: "When you go home in the evening
with the cows, tell the master that my sister Fair pushed me into
the sea yesterday; that a whale swallowed me, and then threw me out,
but will come again and swallow me with the coming of the next tide;
then he'll go out with the tide, and come again with to-morrow's
tide, and throw me again on the strand. The whale will cast me out
three times. I'm under the enchantment of this whale, and cannot
leave the beach or escape myself. Unless my husband saves me before
I'm swallowed the fourth time, I shall be lost. He must come and
shoot the whale with a silver bullet when he turns on the broad of
his back. Under the breast-fin of the whale is a reddish-brown spot.
My husband must hit him in that spot, for it is the only place in
which he can be killed."

When the cowboy got home, the eldest sister gave him a draught of
oblivion, and he did not tell.

Next day he went again to the sea. The whale came and cast Trembling
on shore again. She asked the boy "Did you tell the master what I
told you to tell him?"

"I did not," said he; "I forgot."

"How did you forget?" asked she.

"The woman of the house gave me a drink that made me forget."

"Well, don't forget telling him this night; and if she gives you a
drink, don't take it from her."

As soon as the cowboy came home, the eldest sister offered him a
drink. He refused to take it till he had delivered his message and
told all to the master. The third day the prince went down with his
gun and a silver bullet in it. He was not long down when the whale
came and threw Trembling upon the beach as the two days before. She
had no power to speak to her husband till he had killed the whale.
Then the whale went out, turned over once on the broad of his back,
and showed the spot for a moment only. That moment the prince fired.
He had but the one chance, and a short one at that; but he took it,
and hit the spot, and the whale, mad with pain, made the sea all
around red with blood, and died.

That minute Trembling was able to speak, and went home with her
husband, who sent word to her father what the eldest sister had
done. The father came, and told him any death he chose to give her
to give it. The prince told the father he would leave her life and
death with himself. The father had her put out then on the sea in a
barrel, with provisions in it for seven years.

In time Trembling had a second child, a daughter. The prince and she
sent the cowboy to school, and trained him up as one of their own
children, and said: "If the little girl that is born to us now
lives, no other man in the world will get her but him."

The cowboy and the prince's daughter lived on till they were
married. The mother said to her husband "You could not have saved me
from the whale but for the little cowboy; on that account I don't
grudge him my daughter."

The son of the king of Emania and Trembling had fourteen children,
and they lived happily till the two died of old age.

A poor woman had three sons. The eldest and second eldest were
cunning clever fellows, but they called the youngest Jack the Fool,
because they thought he was no better than a simpleton. The eldest
got tired of staying at home, and said he'd go look for service. He
stayed away a whole year, and then came back one day, dragging one
foot after the other, and a poor wizened face on him, and he as
cross as two sticks. When he was rested and got something to eat, he
told them how he got service with the Gray Churl of the Townland of
Mischance, and that the agreement was, whoever would first say he
was sorry for his bargain, should get an inch wide of the skin of
his back, from shoulder to hips, taken off. If it was the master, he
should also pay double wages; if it was the servant, he should get
no wages at all. "But the thief," says he, "gave me so little to
eat, and kept me so hard at work, that flesh and blood couldn't
stand it; and when he asked me once, when I was in a passion, if I
was sorry for my bargain, I was mad enough to say I was, and here I
am disabled for life."

Vexed enough were the poor mother and brothers; and the second
eldest said on the spot he'd go and take service with the Gray
Churl, and punish him by all the annoyance he'd give him till he'd
make him say he was sorry for his agreement. "Oh, won't I be glad to
see the skin coming off the old villain's back!" said he. All they
could say had no effect: he started off for the Townland of
Mischance, and in a twelvemonth he was back just as miserable and
helpless as his brother.

All the poor mother could say didn't prevent Jack the Fool from
starting to see if he was able to regulate the Gray Churl. He agreed
with him for a year for twenty pounds, and the terms were the same.

"Now, Jack," said the Gray Churl, "if you refuse to do anything you
are able to do, you must lose a month's wages."

"I'm satisfied," said Jack; "and if you stop me from doing a thing
after telling me to do it, you are to give me an additional month's
wages."

"I am satisfied," says the master.

"Or if you blame me for obeying your orders, you must give the
same."

"I am satisfied," said the master again.

The first day that Jack served he was fed very poorly, and was
worked to the saddleskirts. Next day he came in just before the
dinner was sent up to the parlour. They were taking the goose off
the spit, but well becomes Jack he whips a knife off the dresser,
and cuts off one side of the breast, one leg and thigh, and one
wing, and fell to. In came the master, and began to abuse him for
his assurance. "Oh, you know, master, you're to feed me, and
wherever the goose goes won't have to be filled again till supper.
Are you sorry for our agreement?"

The master was going to cry out he was, but he bethought himself in
time. "Oh no, not at all," said he.

"That's well," said Jack.

Next day Jack was to go clamp turf on the bog. They weren't sorry to
have him away from the kitchen at dinner time. He didn't find his
breakfast very heavy on his stomach; so he said to the mistress, "I
think, ma'am, it will be better for me to get my dinner now, and not
lose time coming home from the bog."

"That's true, Jack," said she. So she brought out a good cake, and a
print of butter, and a bottle of milk, thinking he'd take them away
to the bog. But Jack kept his seat, and never drew rein till bread,
butter, and milk went down the red lane.

"Now, mistress," said he, "I'll be earlier at my work to-morrow if I
sleep comfortably on the sheltery side of a pile of dry peat on dry
grass, and not be coming here and going back. So you may as well
give me my supper, and be done with the day's trouble." She gave him
that, thinking he'd take it to the bog; but he fell to on the spot,
and did not leave a scrap to tell tales on him; and the mistress was
a little astonished.

He called to speak to the master in the haggard, and said he, "What
are servants asked to do in this country after aten their supper?"

"Nothing at all, but to go to bed."

"Oh, very well, sir." He went up on the stable-loft, stripped, and
lay down, and some one that saw him told the master. He came up.

"Jack, you anointed scoundrel, what do you mean?" "To go to sleep,
master. The mistress, God bless her, is after giving me my
breakfast, dinner, and supper, and yourself told me that bed was the
next thing. Do you blame me, sir?"

"Yes, you rascal, I do."

"Hand me out one pound thirteen and fourpence, if you please, sir."

"One divel and thirteen imps, you tinker! what for?"

"Oh, I see, you've forgot your bargain. Are you sorry for it?"

"Oh, ya—no, I mean. I'll give you the money after your nap."

Next morning early, Jack asked how he'd be employed that day. "You
are to be holding the plough in that fallow, outside the paddock."
The master went over about nine o'clock to see what kind of a
ploughman was Jack, and what did he see but the little boy driving
the bastes, and the sock and coulter of the plough skimming along
the sod, and Jack pulling ding-dong again' the horses.

"What are you doing, you contrary thief?" said the master.

"An' ain't I strivin' to hold this divel of a plough, as you told
me; but that ounkrawn of a boy keeps whipping on the bastes in spite
of all I say; will you speak to him?"

"No, but I'll speak to you. Didn't you know, you bosthoon, that when
I said 'holding the plough,' I meant reddening the ground."

"Faith, an' if you did, I wish you had said so. Do you blame me for
what I have done?"

The master caught himself in time, but he was so stomached, he said
nothing.

"Go on and redden the ground now, you knave, as other ploughmen do."

"An' are you sorry for our agreement?"

"Oh, not at all, not at all!"

Jack, ploughed away like a good workman all the rest of the day.

In a day or two the master bade him go and mind the cows in a field
that had half of it under young corn. "Be sure, particularly," said
he, "to keep Browney from the wheat; while she's out of mischief
there's no fear of the rest."

About noon, he went to see how Jack was doing his duty, and what did
he find but Jack asleep with his face to the sod, Browney grazing
near a thorn-tree, one end of a long rope round her horns, and the
other end round the tree, and the rest of the beasts all trampling
and eating the green wheat. Down came the switch on Jack.

"Jack, you vagabone, do you see what the cows are at?"

"And do you blame, master?"

"To be sure, you lazy sluggard, I do?"

"Hand me out one pound thirteen and fourpence, master. You said if I
only kept Browney out of mischief, the rest would do no harm. There
she is as harmless as a lamb. Are you sorry for hiring me, master?"

"To be—that is, not at all. I'll give you your money when you go to
dinner. Now, understand me; don't let a cow go out of the field nor
into the wheat the rest of the day."

"Never fear, master!" and neither did he. But the churl would rather
than a great deal he had not hired him.

The next day three heifers were missing, and the master bade Jack go
in search of them.

"Where will I look for them?" said Jack.

"Oh, every place likely and unlikely for them all to be in."

The churl was getting very exact in his words. When he was coming
into the bawn at dinner-time, what work did he find Jack at but
pulling armfuls of the thatch off the roof, and peeping into the
holes he was making?

"What are you doing there, you rascal?"

"Sure, I'm looking for the heifers, poor things!"

"What would bring them there?"

"I don't think anything could bring them in it; but I looked first
into the likely places, that is, the cow-houses, and the pastures,
and the fields next 'em, and now I'm looking in the unlikeliest
place I can think of. Maybe it's not pleasing to you it is."

"And to be sure it isn't pleasing to me, you aggravating goose-cap!"

"Please, sir, hand me one pound thirteen and four pence before you
sit down to your dinner. I'm afraid it's sorrow that's on you for
hiring me at all."

"May the div—oh no; I'm not sorry. Will you begin, if you please,
and put in the thatch again, just as if you were doing it for your
mother's cabin?"

"Oh, faith I will, sir, with a heart and a half;" and by the time
the farmer came out from his dinner, Jack had the roof better than
it was before, for he made the boy give him new straw.

Says the master when he came out, "Go, Jack, and look for the
heifers, and bring them home."

"And where will I look for 'em?"

"Go and search for them as if they were your own." The heifers were
all in the paddock before sunset.

Next morning, says the master, "Jack, the path across the bog to the
pasture is very bad; the sheep does be sinking in it every step; go
and make the sheep's feet a good path." About an hour after he came
to the edge of the bog, and what did he find Jack at but sharpening
a carving knife, and the sheep standing or grazing round.

"Is this the way you are mending the path, Jack?" said he.

"Everything must have a beginning, master," said Jack, "and a thing
well begun is half done. I am sharpening the knife, and I'll have
the feet off every sheep in the flock while you'd be blessing
yourself."

"Feet off my sheep, you anointed rogue! and what would you be taking
their feet off for?"