Stories to Tell Children, Sara Cone Bryant [ebook reader with highlighter txt] 📗

"Loose me now," said the lion, "and we'll fix ourselves and go ploughing."

The tailor said he would not loose him until he came back himself. He left him there then, and he came to Dublin.

When he arrived, he engaged workmen and began to build the court. At the end of the day he had the workmen put a great stone on top of the work. When the great stone was raised up, the tailor put some sort of contrivance under it, that he might be able to throw it down as soon as the giants came near to it. The workpeople then went home, and the tailor went in hiding behind the big stone.

When the darkness of the night was come, he saw the three giants arriving, and they began throwing down the court until they arrived at the place where the tailor was in hiding up above, and one of them struck a blow with his sledge on the place where he was. The tailor threw down the stone, and it fell on him and killed him. The other two went home then and left all of the court that was remaining without throwing it down, since their companion was dead.

The workmen came again the next day, and they were working until night, and as they were going home the tailor told them to put up the big stone on the top of the work, as it had been the night before. They did that for him, went home, and the tailor went in hiding the same as he did the evening before.

When the people had all gone to rest, the two giants came, and they were throwing down all that was before them, but as soon as they began, the tailor commenced manœuvring until he was able to throw down the great stone, so that it fell upon the skull of the giant that was under him, and it killed him. After this there was only the one giant left, and he never came again until the court was finished.

Then when the work was over, the tailor went to the king and told him to give him his wife and his money, as he had the court finished; and the king said he would not give him any wife until he had killed the other giant, for he said that it was not by his strength he had killed the two giants before, and that he would give him nothing now until he killed the other one for him. Then the tailor said that he would kill the other giant for him, and welcome; that there should be no delay at all about that.

The tailor went then till he came to the place where the other giant was, and asked did he want a servant-boy. The giant said he did want one, if he could get one who would do everything that he would do himself.

"Anything that you will do, I will do," said the tailor.

They went to their dinner then, and when they had eaten it, the giant asked the tailor "would he dare to swallow as much boiling broth as himself." The tailor said, "I will certainly do that, but you must give me an hour before we commence." The tailor went out then, and he got a sheepskin, which he sewed up until he made a bag of it, and he slipped it down under his coat. He came in then and told the giant first to drink a gallon of the broth himself. The giant drank that up while it was boiling. "I'll do that," said the tailor. He went on until it was all poured into the skin, and the giant thought he had drunk it. The giant drank another gallon then, and the tailor let another gallon down into the skin, but the giant thought he was drinking it.

"I'll do a thing now that you will not dare to do," said the tailor.

"You will not," said the giant. "What is it you would do?"

"Make a hole and let out the broth again," said the tailor.

"Do it yourself first," said the giant.

The tailor gave a prod of the knife, and he let the broth out of the skin.

"Now you do that," said he.

"I will," said the giant, giving such a prod of the knife into his own stomach that he killed himself. That is the way the tailor killed the third giant.

He went to the king then, and desired him to send him out his wife and his money, saying that he would throw down the court again if he did not do so immediately. They were afraid then that he would throw down the court, and they sent the wife to him.

When the tailor was a day gone, himself and his wife, they repented and followed him to take his wife away from him again. The people who went after him followed him until they came to the place where the lion was, and the lion said to them, "The tailor and his wife were here yesterday. I saw them going by, and if you will loose me now, I am swifter than you, and I will follow them until I overtake them." When they heard that, they released the lion.

The lion and the people of Dublin went on, and pursued the tailor, until they came to the place where the fox was, and the fox greeted them, and said, "The tailor and his wife were here this morning, and if you will loose me, I am swifter than you, and I will follow them, and overtake them." They therefore set the fox free.

The lion and the fox and the army of Dublin went on then, trying to catch the tailor, and they kept going until they came to the place where the old white garraun was, and the old white garraun told them that the tailor and his wife were there in the morning, and "Loose me," said he; "I am swifter than you, and I'll overtake them." They released the old white garraun then, and the old white garraun, the fox, the lion, and the army of Dublin pursued the tailor and his wife, and it was not long before they came up with them.

When the tailor saw them coming, he got out of the coach with his wife, and he sat down on the ground.

When the old white garraun saw the tailor sitting on the ground, he said, "That's the position he was in when he made the hole for me, that I couldn't get out of, when I went down into it. I'll go no nearer to him."

"No!" said the fox, "but that's the way he was when he was making the thing for me, and I'll go no nearer to him."

"No!" says the lion, "but that's the very way he had, when he was making the plough that I was caught in. I'll go no nearer to him."

They all left him then and returned. The tailor and his wife came home to Galway.

This story was told long ago by our Northern forefathers who brought it with them in their dragon ships when they crossed the North Sea to settle in England. In those days men were apt to invent stories to account for things about them which seemed peculiar, and loving the sea as they did, it is not strange that they had remarked the peculiarity of the ocean water and had found a reason why it is so different from the water in the rivers and steams.

This is not the only story that has come down to tell us how people of old accounted for the sea being salt. There are many such stories, each different from the other, all showing that the same childlike spirit of inquiry was at work in different places, striving to find an answer to this riddle of nature.

There sprang from the sons of Odin a race of men who became mighty kings of the earth, and one of these, named Frode, ruled over the lands that are called Denmark.

Now about this time were found in Denmark two great millstones, so large that no one had the strength to turn them. So Frode sent for all the wise men of the land and bade them examine the stones and tell him of what use they were, since no one could grind with them.

And after the wise men had looked closely at them and read the magic letters which were cut upon their edge, they said that the millstones were precious indeed, since they would grind out of nothing anything that the miller might wish.

So King Frode sent messengers over the world to find for him two servants who would be strong enough to grind with the millstones, and after a long, long time his messengers found him two maid-servants, who were bigger and stronger than anyone in Denmark had ever seen. But no one guessed that these were really Giant-Maidens who bore a grudge against all of the race of Odin.

Directly the Giant-Maidens were brought before Frode, and before they had rested after their long journey, or satisfied their hunger, he bade them go to the mill, and grind for him gold and peace and happiness.