The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 5 (of 8): The Celtic Twilight and Stories of Red HanrahanYeats, W. B. (William Butler)
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The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 5 (of 8): The Celtic Twilight and Stories of Red Hanrahan
Yeats, W. B. (William Butler)
English literature -- Irish authors
And in the morning the deer came, and bells ringing on her, under the
windows, and called out, ‘The hunt is here, where are the huntsmen and
the hounds?’ Then Bill got up and got his horse and his hound, and
followed her over hills and hollows till they came to the wood, and
there he saw nothing but the mud-wall cabin and the old woman sitting
by the fire, and she bade him stop the night there, and gave him two
ribs of hair to tie his horse and his hound with. But Bill was wittier
than Jack was, and before he went out, he threw the ribs of hair into
the fire secretly. When he came in the old woman said, ‘Your brother
killed my three sons, and I killed him, and I’ll kill you along with
him.’ And she put her gloves on, and they began the fight, and then
Bill called out, ‘Help, horse.’ ‘Squeeze, hair,’ called the old woman;
‘I can’t squeeze, I’m in the fire,’ said the hair. And the horse came
in and gave her a blow of his hoof. ‘Help, hound,’ said Bill then.
‘Squeeze, hair,’ said the old woman; ‘I can’t, I’m in the fire,’ said
the second hair. Then the hound put his teeth in her, and Bill brought
her down, and she cried for mercy. ‘Give me my life,’ she said, ‘and
I’ll tell you where you’ll get your brother again, and his hound and
horse.’ ‘Where’s that?’ said Bill. ‘Do you see that rod over the fire?’
said she; ‘take it down and go outside the door where you’ll see three
green stones, and strike them with the rod, for they are your brother,
and his horse and hound, and they’ll come to life again.’ ‘I will, but
I’ll make a green stone of you first,’ said Bill, and he cut off her
head with his sword.
Then he went out and struck the stones, and sure enough there were
Jack, and his horse and hound, alive and well. And they began striking
other stones around, and men came from them, that had been turned to
stones, hundreds and thousands of them.
Then they set out for home, but on the way they had some dispute or
some argument together, for Jack was not well pleased to hear he had
spent the night with his wife, and Bill got angry, and he struck Jack
with the rod, and turned him to a green stone. And he went home, but
the princess saw he had something on his mind, and he said then, ‘I
have killed my brother.’ And he went back then and brought him to
life, and they lived happy ever after, and they had children by the
basketful, and threw them out by the shovelful. I was passing one time
myself, and they called me in and gave me a cup of tea.
1902.
BY THE ROADSIDE
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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