Blair Collection > Beside the fire

GULEESH NA GUSS DHU. I 25
noticed this herb before. If there's any virtue in an herb
at all, it ought to be in such a strange one as this."
He drew out his knife, cut the plant, and carried it
into his own house ; stripped the leaves off it and cut
up the stalk ; and there came a thick, white juice out of
it, as there comes out of the sow-thistle when it is
bruised, except that the juice was more like oil.
He put it in a little pot and a little water in it, and
laid it on the fire until the water was boiling, and then
he took a cup, filled it half up with the juice, and put it
to his own mouth. It came into his head then that
perhaps it was poison that was in it, and that the good
people were only tempting him that he might kill him-
self with that trick, or put the girl to death without
meaning it. He put down the cup again, raised a couple
of drops on the top of his finger, and put it to his mouth.
It was nrt bitter, and, indeed, had a sweet, agreeable
taste. He grew bolder then, and drank the full of a
thimble of it, and then as much again, and he never
stopped till he had half the cup drunk. He fell asleep
after that, and did not wake till it was night, and there
was great hunger and great thirst on him.
He had to wait, then, till the day rose; but he deter-
mined^ as soon as he should wake in the morning, that
he would go to the king's daughter and give her a drink
of the juice of the herb.
As soon as he got up in the morning, he went over to
the priest's house with the drink in his hand, and he
never felt himself so bold and valiant, and spirited and
light, as he was that day, and he was quite certain that it
was the drink he drank which made him so hearty.
When he came^to the house, he found the priest and
the young lady within, and they were wondering greatly
why he had net visited them for two days.