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"It's I that am willing," said the king's son. And on the same day they |
married. |
But at the end of a day and seven years, who should be seen coming to |
the castle but the giant. The king's son was reminded of his promise to |
the giant, and till now he had not told his promise to the queen. |
"Leave the matter between me and the giant," says the queen. |
"Turn out your son," says the giant; "mind your promise." |
"You shall have him," says the king, "when his mother puts him in order |
for his journey." |
The queen dressed up the cook's son, and she gave him to the giant by |
the hand. The giant went away with him; but he had not gone far when he |
put a rod in the hand of the little laddie. The giant asked him-- |
"If thy father had that rod what would he do with it?" |
"If my father had that rod he would beat the dogs and the cats, so that |
they shouldn't be going near the king's meat," said the little laddie. |
"Thou'rt the cook's son," said the giant. He catches him by the two |
small ankles and knocks him against the stone that was beside him. The |
giant turned back to the castle in rage and madness, and he said that |
if they did not send out the king's son to him, the highest stone of |
the castle would be the lowest. |
Said the queen to the king, "We'll try it yet; the butler's son is of |
the same age as our son." |
She dressed up the butler's son, and she gives him to the giant by the |
hand. The giant had not gone far when he put the rod in his hand. |
"If thy father had that rod," says the giant, "what would he do with |
it?" |
"He would beat the dogs and the cats when they would be coming near the |
king's bottles and glasses." |
"Thou art the son of the butler," says the giant and dashed his brains |
out too. The giant returned in a very great rage and anger. The earth |
shook under the sole of his feet, and the castle shook and all that was |
in it. |
"OUT HERE WITH THY SON," says the giant, "or in a twinkling the stone |
that is highest in the dwelling will be the lowest." So they had to |
give the king's son to the giant. |
When they were gone a little bit from the earth, the giant showed him |
the rod that was in his hand and said: "What would thy father do with |
this rod if he had it?" |
The king's son said: "My father has a braver rod than that." |
And the giant asked him, "Where is thy father when he has that brave |
rod?" |
And the king's son said: "He will be sitting in his kingly chair." |
Then the giant understood that he had the right one. |
The giant took him to his own house, and he reared him as his own son. |
On a day of days when the giant was from home, the lad heard the |
sweetest music he ever heard in a room at the top of the giant's house. |
At a glance he saw the finest face he had ever seen. She beckoned to |
him to come a bit nearer to her, and she said her name was Auburn Mary |
but she told him to go this time, but to be sure to be at the same |
place about that dead midnight. |
And as he promised he did. The giant's daughter was at his side in a |
twinkling, and she said, "To-morrow you will get the choice of my two |
sisters to marry; but say that you will not take either, but me. My |
father wants me to marry the son of the king of the Green City, but I |
don't like him." On the morrow the giant took out his three daughters, |
and he said: |
"Now, son of the king of Tethertown, thou hast not lost by living with |
me so long. Thou wilt get to wife one of the two eldest of my |
daughters, and with her leave to go home with her the day after the |
wedding." |
"If you will give me this pretty little one," says the king's son, "I |
will take you at your word." |
The giant's wrath kindled, and he said: "Before thou gett'st her thou |
must do the three things that I ask thee to do." |
"Say on," says the king's son. |
The giant took him to the byre. |
"Now," says the giant, "a hundred cattle are stabled here, and it has |
not been cleansed for seven years. I am going from home to-day, and if |
this byre is not cleaned before night comes, so clean that a golden |
apple will run from end to end of it, not only thou shalt not get my |
daughter, but 'tis only a drink of thy fresh, goodly, beautiful blood |
that will quench my thirst this night." |