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He begins cleaning the byre, but he might just as well to keep baling |
the great ocean. After midday when sweat was blinding him, the giant's |
youngest daughter came where he was, and she said to him: |
"You are being punished, king's son." |
"I am that," says the king's son. |
"Come over," says Auburn Mary, "and lay down your weariness." |
"I will do that," says he, "there is but death awaiting me, at any |
rate." He sat down near her. He was so tired that he fell asleep beside |
her. When he awoke, the giant's daughter was not to be seen, but the |
byre was so well cleaned that a golden apple would run from end to end |
of it and raise no stain. In comes the giant, and he said: |
"Hast thou cleaned the byre, king's son?" |
"I have cleaned it," says he. |
"Somebody cleaned it," says the giant. |
"You did not clean it, at all events," said the king's son. |
"Well, well!" says the giant, "since thou wert so active to-day, thou |
wilt get to this time to-morrow to thatch this byre with birds' down, |
from birds with no two feathers of one colour." |
The king's son was on foot before the sun; he caught up his bow and his |
quiver of arrows to kill the birds. He took to the moors, but if he |
did, the birds were not so easy to take. He was running after them till |
the sweat was blinding him. About mid-day who should come but Auburn |
Mary. |
"You are exhausting yourself, king's son," says she. |
"I am," said he. |
"There fell but these two blackbirds, and both of one colour." |
"Come over and lay down your weariness on this pretty hillock," says |
the giant's daughter. |
"It's I am willing," said he. |
He thought she would aid him this time, too, and he sat down near her, |
and he was not long there till he fell asleep. |
When he awoke, Auburn Mary was gone. He thought he would go back to the |
house, and he sees the byre thatched with feathers. When the giant came |
home, he said: |
"Hast thou thatched the byre, king's son?" |
"I thatched it," says he. |
"Somebody thatched it," says the giant. |
"You did not thatch it," says the king's son. |
"Yes, yes!" says the giant. "Now," says the giant, "there is a fir tree |
beside that loch down there, and there is a magpie's nest in its top. |
The eggs thou wilt find in the nest. I must have them for my first |
meal. Not one must be burst or broken, and there are five in the nest." |
Early in the morning the king's son went where the tree was, and that |
tree was not hard to hit upon. Its match was not in the whole wood. |
From the foot to the first branch was five hundred feet. The king's son |
was going all round the tree. She came who was always bringing help to |
him. |
"You are losing the skin of your hands and feet." |
"Ach! I am," says he. "I am no sooner up than down." |
"This is no time for stopping," says the giant's daughter. "Now you |
must kill me, strip the flesh from my bones, take all those bones |
apart, and use them as steps for climbing the tree. When you are |
climbing the tree, they will stick to the glass as if they had grown |
out of it; but when you are coming down, and have put your foot on each |
one, they will drop into your hand when you touch them. Be sure and |
stand on each bone, leave none untouched; if you do, it will stay |
behind. Put all my flesh into this clean cloth by the side of the |
spring at the roots of the tree. When you come to the earth, arrange my |
bones together, put the flesh over them, sprinkle it with water from |
the spring, and I shall be alive before you. But don't forget a bone of |
me on the tree." |
"How could I kill you," asked the king's son, "after what you have done |
for me?" |
"If you won't obey, you and I are done for," said Auburn Mary. "You |
must climb the tree, or we are lost; and to climb the tree you must do |
as I say." The king's son obeyed. He killed Auburn Mary, cut the flesh |
from her body, and unjointed the bones, as she had told him. |
As he went up, the king's son put the bones of Auburn Mary's body |
against the side of the tree, using them as steps, till he came under |
the nest and stood on the last bone. |