Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 26, 1915.djvu/197

 Collectanea. 187

another woman with him. She followed the coach till she came to a house. Her husband came out of the coach, and told her to go into the house, and that she would lead there a lady's life. So she went in and found a baby in the house. Her husband came in and stayed with her all the night, and in the morning left her and got into the coach again. She made ready to follow the coach. But the woman of the house said to her, " Stop here with me, and you shall have a lady's life."

" No," she said, " I'll follow my husband till he kills me."

" Well," said the woman of the house, " since you won't live with me, take this little scissors with you, and if ever you have bad clothes, cut them with this scissors and you will have a fine suit."

So the wife followed the coach that day till the dusk came and she was near a house. And for pity on her the husband came out of the coach, and told her to go into the house, and he would stop with her. She went into the house, and there was another baby in it, and she had had it to sleep with her that night. In the morning she got up, washed her face, and combed her hair, and was out after the coach. The woman of the house asked her to live with her, and that she would have a lady's life. But she would not, so the woman of the house said, " Take this table-cloth, and if ever you are hungry, spread it out, and every sort of food will come on it."

So the wife went after the coach until night came, and she was near a house, and through pity on her her husband came out of the coach and told her to go into the house, and that from the morrow she would never see him again. " If you stay in this house," he said, "you shall have a lady's life. The two women you stayed with the last two nights were my sisters. And those were your two children that you saw. When you let down the tear the eye was taken out of your little girl."

The wife then went into the house, and found the little girl. She loosened the knot on the handkerchief and put the tear in the child's eye-socket, and it had its eye again. In the morning the woman of the house asked her to stay with her, and she said she had her three children with her the three last nights. But the wife would not stay. "No," said she, "I will follow the coach