J. F. Campbell Collection > Popular tales of the West Highlands > Volume 2

XLI.
THE WIDOW AND HEE DAUGHTEES.
From Mrs. MacGeacby, Farmer's Wife, Islay.
T^HEEE was formerly a poor widow, and she had
-*- three daughters, and all she had to feed them was a
kailyard. There was a great gray horse who was coming
every day to the yard to eat the kail. Said the eld-
est of the daughters to her mother, " I will go to the
yard to-day, and I will take the spinning-wheel with
nie, and I will keep the horse out of the kail." " Do,"
said her mother. She went out. The horse came ;
she took the distaff from the wheel and she struck
him. The distaff stuck to the horse, and her hand
stuck to the distaff. Away went the horse till they
reached a green hill, and he called out, " Open, open,
oh green hill, and let in the king's son ; open, open,
oh green hill, and let in the widow's daughter." The
hill opened, and they went in. He warmed water for
her feet, and made a soft bed for her limbs, and she
lay down that night. Early on the morrow, when he
rose, he was going to hunt. He gave her the keys of
the whole house, and he said to her that she might
open every chamber inside but the one. " By all she
ever saw not to open that one." That she should have
his dinner ready when he should come back, and that
if she would be a good woman that he would marry