Page:Beside the Fire - Douglas Hyde.djvu/231

Rh When the children were a year old, the mother took them with her, and went to the king's house.

There were doctors from every place in Erin attending on the king, but they were not able to do him any good.

When the daughter came in, the king did not recognise her. She sat down, and the three sons round her, and she told her story to them from top to bottom, and the king was listening to her telling it. Then she left her hand on the sole of the king's foot and the tree fell off it.

The day on the morrow he hanged the old hag, and he gave his estate to his daughter and to the gentleman.

There was an old crow teaching a young crow one day, and he said to him, "Now my son," says he, "listen to the advice I'm going to give you. If you see a person coming near you and stooping, mind yourself, and be on your keeping; he's stooping for a stone to throw at you."

"But tell me," says the young crow, "what should I do if he had a stone already down in his pocket?"

"Musha, go 'long out of that," says the old crow, "you've learned enough; the devil another learning I'm able to give you."