J. F. Campbell Collection > Fireside stories of Ireland

THE PRINCESS IN THE CAT-SKINS. b;
two suits of clothes would look best on me; I'm going to be
married." " Ah, how could the likes of me be able to ad-
vise you ? Is the rich dressed lady, that I heard the foot-
men talking about, to be your queen *? " " Yourself is as
likely to be my wife as that young lady." " Then who is
it 1 " " Yourself, I tell you." " Myself ! How can your
majesty joke that way on a poor girl ] They say you're
promised to the lady of the three rich dresses." " I'm pro-
mised to no one but yourself. I asked you twice already
to be my queen ; I ask you now the third time." " Yes,
and maybe after all, you'll marry the lady of the dresses."
"You promised you'd have me if I knew you the next time
we'd meet. This is the next time. If I don't know you, I
know my ring on your fourth finger." She looked, and
there it was sure enough. Maybe she didn't blush. "Will
your majesty step into the next room for a minute," said
she, " and leave me by myself ? " He did so, and when she
opened the door for him again, there she was with the brown
stain off her face and hands, and her dazzhng dress of silk
and jewels on her. Wasn't he the happy prince, and she
the happy princess '? And weren't the noisy servants leivd
of themselves when they saw poor Cat-skin in her royal
dress saying the words before the priest ? They didn't put
off their marriage, and there was the fairy now in the ap-
pearance of a beautiful woman ; and if I was to teU you
about the happy life they led, I'd only be tiring you.
THE WELL AT THE WOELD'S END.
Once there was a king that had three sons, and he was so
sick that no one thought he'd ever recover. They went to
consult a wise old hermit that lived in a wood near, and he
said that nothing would cure the king but a draught from the
World's-End water. So the eldest son thought to himself,
— " I'll set out to bring this drink, and then I'll be sure to
get all the kingdom from my father when he's about to die."
So he got leave from his father and set out. He went first
to the hermit, and asked him whereabouts was the '' End