Till midnight all goes well. As twelve o clock rings, however, the sick
prince rises, dresses himself, and slips downstairs. Kate followed, but
he didn't seem to notice her. The prince went to the stable, saddled his
horse, called his hound, jumped into the saddle, and Kate leapt lightly
up behind him. Away rode the prince and Kate through the greenwood,
Kate, as they pass, plucking nuts from the trees and filling her apron
with them. They rode on and on till they came to a green hill. The
prince here drew bridle and spoke, “Open, open, green hill, and let the
young prince in with his horse and his hound,” and Kate added, “and his
lady him behind.”
Immediately the green hill opened and they passed in. The prince entered
a magnificent hall, brightly lighted up, and many beautiful fairies
surrounded the prince and led him off to the dance. Meanwhile, Kate,
without being noticed, hid herself behind the door. There she sees the
prince dancing, and dancing, and dancing, till he could dance no longer
and fell upon a couch. Then the fairies would fan him till he could rise
again and go on dancing.
At last the cock crew, and the prince made all haste to get on
horseback; Kate jumped up behind, and home they rode. When the morning
sun rose they came in and found Kate sitting down by the fire and
cracking her nuts. Kate said the prince had a good night; but she would
not sit up another night unless she was to get a peck of gold. The
second night passed as the first had done. The prince got up at midnight
and rode away to the green hill and the fairy ball, and Kate went with
him, gathering nuts as they rode through the forest. This time she did
not watch the prince, for she knew he would dance and dance, and dance.
But she sees a fairy baby playing with a wand, and overhears one of the
fairies say: “Three strokes of that wand would make Kate's sick sister
as bonnie as ever she was.” So Kate rolled nuts to the fairy baby, and
rolled nuts till the baby toddled after the nuts and let fall the wand,
and Kate took it up and put it in her apron. And at cockcrow they rode
home as before, and the moment Kate got home to her room she rushed and
touched Anne three times with the wand, and the nasty sheep's head
fell off and she was her own pretty self again. The third night Kate
consented to watch, only if she should marry the sick prince. All went
on as on the first two nights. This time the fairy baby was playing with
a birdie; Kate heard one of the fairies say: “Three bites of that birdie
would make the sick prince as well as ever he was.” Kate rolled all the
nuts she had to the fairy baby till the birdie was dropped, and Kate put
it in her apron.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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