Page:Ballads, Stevenson, 1890.djvu/90

 "For life is a little matter,

And death is nought to the young;

And I dare not sell my honor

Under the eye of my son.

Take him, O king, and bind him,

And cast him far in the deep;

And it 's I will tell the secret

That I have sworn to keep."

They took the son and bound him,

Neck and heels in a thong,

And a lad took him and swung him,

And flung him far and strong,

And the sea swallowed his body,

Like that of a child of ten;—

And there on the cliff stood the father,

Last of the dwarfish men.

"True was the word I told you:

Only my son I feared;

For I doubt the sapling courage

That goes without the beard.

But now in vain is the torture,

Fire shall never avail:

Here dies in my bosom

The secret of Heather Ale."

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