Page:West Irish folk-tales and romances - William Larminie.djvu/208

 176 “I will, if you put posts under them.”

And he could not do that, but he said,—

“I will hang you at twelve to-morrow, if you don't give me the measure of the sea in quarts.”

And he went home to his daughter and told her, and in the morning, as he was going to work, she said,—

“Let him stop the rivers that are going into the sea or out of it, and you will measure it in quarts.”

So he gave that answer to his master, and his master could not stop the rivers.

Then he asked for the little girl in marriage, and the old man told him not to be making fun of the little girl, she was not fit for him. He would get a lady.

“I will not do that,” said he, “ you must give her to me to marry.”

“Well, I must see the little girl; she will know what she will do.”

He went to his daughter and told her what the gentleman said, and the little girl answered her father, and said to him,—

“I will marry him, but he must give me a writing under his hand that on the day when he puts me away he must give me my choice of all that's in his house, to take away three loads with me.”

And he said he would give her that, and she got it in his handwriting and signed by the lawyer.