Page:Beside the Fire - Douglas Hyde.djvu/105

 Rh western world; and if her own runner should come back more quickly than his runner, she said his head was gone.

She got an old hag—some witch—and she gave her three bottles. The short green man bade them give three bottles to the man who was keeping the field of hares, and they were given to him. The hag and the man started, and three bottles with each of them; and the runner of the king's son was coming back half way on the road home, while the hag had only gone half way to the well. "Sit down," said the hag to the foot-runner, when they met, "and take your rest, for the pair of them are married now, and don't be breaking your heart running." She brought over a horse's head and a slumber-pin in it, and laid it under his head, and when he laid down his head on it he fell asleep. She spilt out the water he had and she went.

The short green man thought it long until they were coming, and he said to the earman, "Lay your ear to the ground and try are they coming."

"I hear the hag a' coming," said he; "but the footman is in his sleep, and I hear him a' snoring."

"Look from you," said the short green man to the gunman, "till you see where the foot-runner is."

The gunman looked, and he said that the footman was in such and such a place, and a horse's skull under his head, and he in his sleeping.

"Lay your gun to your eye," said the short green man, "and put the skull away from under his head."

He put the gun to his eye and he swept the skull from under his head. The footman woke up, and he found that the bottles which he had were empty, and it was necessary for him to return to the well again.

The hag was coming then, and the foot-runner was