Blair Collection > Beside the fire

THE ALP-LUACHRA. 63
So they were arguing and striving until the night
came, and the beggarman got a bed of straw in the
barn, and he began arguing again in the morning that
he ought to go to the prince, and the wife and daughter
were on one word with him ; and they prevailed at last
on the sick man, and he said that he would go, and the
daughter said that she would go with him to take care
of him, and the boccuch said that he would go with them
to show them the road ; " and I'll be on rhe pinch
of death, for ye, with anxiety,'' said the wife, " until ye
come back again."
They harnessed the horse, and they put him under the
cart, and they took a week's provision with them — bread,
and bacon, and eggs, and they went oif. They could
not go very far the first day, for the sick man was so
weak, that he was not able to bear the shaking he was
getting in the cart ; but he was better the second day,
and they all passed the night in a farmer's house on
the side of the road, and they went on again in the
morning; but on the third day, in the evening, they
came to the dwelling of the prince. He had a nice
house, on the brink of the lake, with a straw root, in
among the trees.
They left the horse and the cart in a little village near
the prince's place, and they all walked together, until
they came to the house. They went into the kitchen,
and asked, "Couldn't they see the prince?" The ser-
vant said that he was eating his meal, but that he
would come, perhaps, when he was ready.
The prince himself came in at that moment, and asked
what it was they wanted. The sick man rose up and
told him, that it was looking for assistance from his
honour he was, and he told him his whole story. " And