Well, the king he says: “Ye've managed well, Molly; but if ye would
manage better, and steal the purse that lies below the giant's pillow,
I would marry your second sister to my second son.” And Molly said she
would try. So she set out for the giant's house, and slipped in, and hid
again below the bed, and waited till the giant had eaten his supper, and
was snoring sound asleep. She slipped out, and slipped her hand below
the pillow, and got out the purse; but just as she was going out the
giant wakened, and ran after her; and she ran, and he ran, till they
came to the “Bridge of one hair,” and she got over, but he couldn't, and
he said, “Woe worth ye, Molly Whuppie! never you come again.” “Once yet,
carle,” quoth she, “I'll come to Spain.” So Molly took the purse to the
king, and her second sister was married to the king's second son.
After that the king says to Molly: “Molly, you are a clever girl, but if
you would do better yet, and steal the giant's ring that he wears on his
finger, I will give you my youngest son for yourself.” Molly said she
would try. So back she goes to the giant's house, and hides herself
below the bed. The giant wasn't long ere he came home, and, after he had
eaten a great big supper, he went to his bed, and shortly was snoring
loud. Molly crept out and reached over the bed, and got hold of the
giant's hand, and she pulled and she pulled until she got off the ring;
but just as she got it off the giant got up, and gripped her by the
hand, and he says: “Now I have catcht you, Molly Whuppie, and, if I had
done as much ill to you as ye have done to me, what would ye do to me?”
Molly says: “I would put you into a sack, and I'd put the cat inside
with you, and the dog aside you, and a needle and thread and a shears,
and I'd hang you up upon the wall, and I'd go to the wood, and choose
the thickest stick I could get, and I would come home, and take you
down, and bang you till you were dead.”
“Well, Molly,” says the giant, “I'll just do that to you.”
So he gets a sack, and puts Molly into it, and the cat and the dog
beside her, and a needle and thread and shears, and hangs her up upon
the wall, and goes to the wood to choose a stick.
Molly she sings out: “Oh, if ye saw what I see.”
“Oh,” says the giant's wife, “what do ye see, Molly?”
But Molly never said a word but, “Oh, if ye saw what I see!”
The giant's wife begged that Molly would take her up into the sack till
she would see what Molly saw. So Molly took the shears and cut a hole in
the sack, and took out the needle and thread with her, and jumped down
and helped, the giant's wife up into the sack, and sewed up the hole.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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