Donegal Fairy Tales - McManus Seumas (книги читать бесплатно без регистрации TXT) 📗

Jack, he was prepared for all this. He was concealed half a mile along the way, and when Donal came tearing up he came out of where he was concealed, and said to Donal: “What’s the matter?”

And Donal pointed back, and Jack he leaped and got hold of the big horse and stopped it, and led it back home, and took the old woman off its back.

When Donal ventured home again, he was in very low spirits entirely, and he said that if his mother-in-law was going to rise every time she was buried and haunt him all the days of his life, he might as well end his life at once.

“Not too quick! ”says Jack, says he. “What will you give me, and I’ll save you from your mother-in-law?”

“O! I’ll give you,” says he, “anything at all, in moderation, that you ask.”

“Well,” says Jack, says he, “if you pension me, I’ll live here always, and I’ll watch by your mother-in-law’s grave every night, and keep her from rising.”

Says Donal: “If you do that, I’ll give you any. pension you ask.”

Jack asked one hundred pounds a year, and Donal agreed to it. They buried the mother-in-law the third time, and Jack worked for his pension so faithfully and so well, that she never rose more.

Donal and his wife lived middling happy, but Jack and his wife and children, with their pension of one hundred pounds a year, were the happiest family in all Ireland.

The Snow, the Crow, and the Blood

ONE day in the dead of winter, when the snow lay like a linen tablecloth over the world, Jack, the King of Ireland’s son, went out to shoot. He saw a crow, and he shot it, and it fell down on the snow. Jack went up to it, and he thought he never saw anything blacker than that crow, or redder than its blood, nor anything whiter than the snow round about.

He said to himself: “I’ll never rest till I get a wife whose hair is as black as that crow, whose cheeks are as red as that blood, and whose skin is as white as that snow.”

So he went home, and told his father and mother this. He said he was going to set off before him and look for such a girl.

The King and Queen told Jack that it would be impossible ever to get a girl that would answer that description, and tried to persuade Jack from setting out, but Jack wouldn’t be persuaded.

He started off with his father’s and his mother’s blessing, and a hundred guineas that his father had given him in his pocket. He traveled away and away very far, and about the middle of the day on the second day out, passing a graveyard, he saw a crowd there wrangling over a corpse. He went in and inquired what was the matter, and he found there were bailiffs wanting to seize the corpse for a debt of a hundred guineas. Jack was sorry for the poor corpse, so he put his hand in his pocket, took out the hundred guineas, and paid them down; and then the friends of the corpse thanked him heartily and buried the body.

That very same evening Jack was overtaken by a little red man who asked him where he was going.

Says Jack: “I’m going in search of a wife.”

“Well,” says the little red man, “such a handsome young fellow as you won’t have to go far.”

“Far enough,” says Jack, “because the girl I want must have hair as black as the blackest crow, cheeks as red as the reddest blood, and skin as white as the whitest snow.”

“Then,” said the little red man, “there’s only one such woman in the world, and she is the Princess of the East. There’s many a brave young man went there before you to court her, but none of them ever came back alive again.”

“For life or for death,” says Jack, “I’ll never rest until I reach the Princess of the East and court her.”

“Well,” said the little red man, “you’ll want a boy with you. Let me be your boy.”

“But I have no money to pay you,” says Jack. “That will be all right,” says the little red man. “I’ll go with you.”

That night late they reached a great castle. “This castle,” says the little red man, “is the castle of the Giant of the Cloak of Darkness.”

“Oh,” says Jack, “I’ve heard of that terrible giant. We’ll pass on, and look for somewhere else to stop.”

“No other place we’ll stop than here,” says the little red man, knocking at the gates.

Jack was too brave to run away, so he stood by the little red man till a great and terrible giant came to the gates and opened them, and asked them what they wanted.

“We want supper and a bed for the night,” says the red fellow.

“That’s good,” says the giant. “I want supper and bed too. I’ll make my supper off you both, and my bed on your bones.” And then he let a terrible laugh out of him that made the hair stand up on poor Jack’s head.

But in a flash, the wee red fellow whips out his sword and struck out at the giant, and the giant then pulled out his, and struck out at the wee red man. Both of them fell to it hard and fast, and they fought a terrible fight for a long time; but in the end the wee red man ran the giant through the heart and killed him.

Then he took Jack in, and they spread for themselves a grand supper with the best of everything eatable and drinkable, and had a good sleep, and in the morning they started off, the wee red fellow taking with him the Cloak of Darkness belonging to the giant he had killed.

They traveled on and on that day, and at night they reached another castle.

“What castle is this?” says Jack.

“This,” says the wee red man, “is the castle of the Giant of the Purse of Plenty.”

“Then,” says Jack, “I’ve heard of that terrible giant. We’ll push on and look for somewhere else to stop tonight.”

“Nowhere else than here we’ll stop,” says the wee red man. “No danger ever frightened me in all my life before, and it’s too late to begin to learn fright now.”

And before Jack could say anything he had knocked at the gates, and a giant with two heads came out roaring, and asked them what they wanted and what brought them there.

“We don’t want much,” says the little red man, “only what every traveler expects -- a sweet supper and a soft bed.”

“I want both myself, too,” says the giant, “and I’ll make a sweet supper off you both, and a soft bed of your bones.”

Then he laughed an awful laugh that shook the castle and made the hair stand up on poor Jack’s head.

But that minute the wee red man whipped out his sword and made at him, and the giant whipped out his and made at the wee red man; and both of them fell to and had a fight long and hard, but at length the wee red man ran his sword through the giant’s heart and killed him.

Then they went in, and spread for themselves a grand supper and a fine bed, in which they slept soundly till morning. And in the morning they went off, the little red man taking with him the Purse of Plenty.

All that day they traveled on before them, and when night fell they came to another great castle.

“What castle is this?” says Jack.

“This,” says the little red man, “is the castle of the Giant of the Sword of Light.”

“Oh,” says Jack, “I’ve heard of that terrible giant and his awful sword, and,” he says, “I want to get out of his neighborhood as fast as possible.”

“Fear never made me turn my back on man or mortal yet,” says the little red man, “and I don’t think I’ll begin this late in life. As we’re here, we’ll lodge here this night.”

So on the gates he rattled, and out came a frightful giant, with three great heads on him, and he roared so that the hills shook; and he asked them what they were doing here and what they wanted.

“We are two poor travelers on a journey,” says the little red man, “and as night fell on us we thought we would ask you to give us bed and board for the night.”