Without a word or a good-bye off they flew over the deep blue sea which
was tossing and moaning. They flew and they flew till they swooped down
on Earl Mar's castle just as the wedding party were setting out for the
church. First came the men-at-arms and then the bridegroom's friends,
and then Earl Mar's men, and then the bridegroom, and lastly, pale
and beautiful, Earl Mar's daughter herself. They moved down slowly to
stately music till they came past the trees on which the birds were
settling. A word from Prince Florentine, the goshawk, and they all rose
into the air, herons beneath, cygnets above, and goshawk circling above
all. The weddineers wondered at the sight when, swoop! the herons were
down among them scattering the men-at-arms. The swanlets took charge
of the bride while the goshawk dashed down and tied the bridegroom to a
tree. Then the herons gathered themselves together into one feather bed
and the cygnets placed their mother upon them, and suddenly they all
rose in the air bearing the bride away with them in safety towards
Prince Florentine's home. Surely a wedding party was never so disturbed
in this world. What could the weddineers do? They saw their pretty bride
carried away and away till she and the herons and the swans and the
goshawk disappeared, and that very day Prince Florentine brought Earl
Mar's daughter to the castle of the queen his mother, who took the spell
off him and they lived happy ever afterwards.
MR. MIACCA
Tommy Grimes was sometimes a good boy, and sometimes a bad boy; and when
he was a bad boy, he was a very bad boy. Now his mother used to say to
him: “Tommy, Tommy, be a good boy, and don't go out of the street, or
else Mr. Miacca will take you.” But still when he was a bad boy he would
go out of the street; and one day, sure enough, he had scarcely got
round the corner, when Mr. Miacca did catch him and popped him into a
bag upside down, and took him off to his house.
When Mr. Miacca got Tommy inside, he pulled him out of the bag and set
him down, and felt his arms and legs. “You're rather tough,” says he;
“but you're all I've got for supper, and you'll not taste bad boiled.
But body o' me, I've forgot the herbs, and it's bitter you'll taste
without herbs. Sally! Here, I say, Sally!” and he called Mrs. Miacca.
So Mrs. Miacca came out of another room and said: “What d'ye want, my
dear?”
“Oh, here's a little boy for supper,” said Mr. Miacca, “and I've forgot
the herbs. Mind him, will ye, while I go for them.”
“All right, my love,” says Mrs. Miacca, and off he goes.
Then Tommy Grimes said to Mrs. Miacca: “Does Mr. Miacca always have
little boys for supper?”
“Mostly, my dear,” said Mrs. Miacca, “if little boys are bad enough, and
get in his way.”
“And don't you have anything else but boy-meat? No pudding?” asked
Tommy.
“Ah, I loves pudding,” says Mrs. Miacca. “But it's not often the likes
of me gets pudding.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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