J. F. Campbell Collection > Fireside stories of Ireland

54 THE FIRESIDE STOEIES OF IRELAND.
gathered round him. Well, the poor fellow scramhled out
some way, and sat down on a sod, and he'd have cried oiily
for the shame of it. He began at it in ever so many places,
and one was still worse than the other, and in the heel of
the evening, when he was sitting with his head between his
hands, who should be standing before him but the fox 1
" Well, my poor fellow," says he, " you're low enough.
Go in : I won't say anything to add to your trouble. Take
your supper and your rest : to-morrow will be a new day."
" How is the work going off," says the king when they
were at supper. "Faith, your Majesty," says the poor boy,
" it's not going off, but coming on it is. I suppose you'll
have the trouble of digging me out at sunset to-morrow,
and waking me." " I hope not," says the princess with a
smile on her kind face, and the boy was as happy as
anything the rest of the evening.
He was wakened up next morning with voices shouting,
and bugles blowing, and drums beating, and such a hulli-
buUoo he never heard in his life before. He ran out to see
what was the matter, and there, where the heap of clay was
the evening before, were soldiers, and servants, and lords,
and ladies, dancing like mad for joy that it was gone.
*•' Ah, my poor fox ! " says he to himself, " this is your
work." Well there was little delay about his return. The
King was going to send a great retinue with the princess
and himself, but he wouldn't let him take the trouble. "I
have a friend," says he, " that will bring as both to the
King of Moroco's palace in a day, d — fly away with him !"
There was great crying when she was parting from her
father. " Ah ! " says he, " what a lonesome life I'll have
now ! Your poor brother in the power of that wicked
witch, and kept away from us, and now you taken from me
in my old age ! " AYell, while they both were walking on
through the wood, and he telling her how much he loved
her, out walked the fox from behind a brake, and in a short
time he and she were sitting on the brush, and holding one
another fast for fear of slipping off, and away they went
like thought. The wind, &c., &c., and in the evening he
and she were in the big bawn of the King of Moroco's
castle.