J. F. Campbell Collection > Fireside stories of Ireland

THE GILL A NA GRUAGA DONNA. 73
dowu tlie wall, and into the garden. Oh, such a fright !
such cries, and such screeches as came out of the mouths
of every one in the room ; and still the nose went on through
the garden and out on the lawn. The king could not stir
out of his seat on the carpet, Lut, as well as he could, he
bade a dozen of doctors he sent for. They came, but they
could do nothing, arid messengers were coming and going
every minute to see and bring back w^ord how far the end
was getting. It wasn't growing so fast since it got beyond
the lawn, but still it was getting on, and the doctors order-
ed sentries to be stationed all along for fear of a horse tread-
ing on it, or a cart wheel running over it.
IS^o one went asleep in the palace that night but the
scullery maid and nine of the doctors. The king thought
morning would never come, and when he inquired at last
where the end of his nose was, he was told it was near the
river that lay between his dominions and the next king's,
but only going an inch in a minute.
About sunrise, some one came in to tell that a poor-look-
ing man was asking leave to come in to try to cure the
king. So he was let in, but told that his head would go off
if he done any harm. " Oh, if his Majesty is in a good
state of mind, Til cure him in spite of the divel himself."
He gave him a small bit of a pear which he took out of a
basket, and it was no sooner down than the nose grew an
inch less in the round, the king was able to raise his head
a little, and the far off sentries shouted that the nose was
gone back half a mile.
" ISTow, my liege," says the man, " if your conscience is
good, I will bring it within its own bounds the next offer.
Have you any restitution to make to anybody 1" " JST-n-n-
no ! " says he. Then he gave him a bit of fruit, and the
king let a roar. His nose was now thicker than it ever
was, and the sentries cried to those next them, and these
to the others, and those to the sentries in the garden, that
the enlarged end was now just at the very bank of the
river.
"!N"o use in blindfolding the divel in the dark," says the
man. " You'll be lost horse and foot if you don't confess
and restore the goods." " Well, I own that I took the