Ossian Collection > Folk tales and fairy lore in Gaelic and English

FOLK TALES AND FAIRV LORE. 2$
The first thing he did next morning was to go to
the smithy and hide the three hundred merks in a hole
he dug under the door-step. He had no word of the
bet, but he continued making socks until the last even-
ing before the fair.
Shortly before the time to stop work came, who
turned into the smithy but the gentleman who made
the deer-hound. He greeted the Swarthy Smith, and
asked him whether he had yet made that machine
with which he was going to win the next bet from the
King's Smith. But the Swarthy Smith remembered
neither that he laid a bet, nor what it was about.
" Well," said the gentleman, " if you promise me half
of what you win, and that you will go no more to the
Inn, I will make you a machine with which you will
carry off the bet." " I promise that, and also will
fulfil my promise as far as I can," replied the Swarthy
Smith.
Then the gentleman set to work. He made first a
box, and then a large strong otter in the same way
as he had made the deer-hound. And when it was
ready he put it in the box, and shut and locked the
lid over it. "Now," said he to the Swarthy Smith,
"you will take this box with you to the fair, and you
will not open it until the King's Smith will first open
his. You will win the bet this time yet. But see
that you go not to the Inn, and that you lay not another
bet for fear you lose all you have won. In a few^
days I will call again at the smithy, and you will give
me half the money you will win." The smith said he
would do as he was told, and they parted.
Next day the Swarthy Smith went away with the
box to the fair. When he arrived he met the King's