So the King was very angry when he heard that, and he went to his butler and he said: ‘Go out to the wood where my son is, and shoot him there, and cut him open and bring his heart here with you on the top of the gun, and throw it to the dogs at the door; for I will never have him, or anything belonging to him, brought into this house,’ he said. So the butler got the gun, and went out to the wood, and when he saw the young man he was going to shoot him. ‘Why would you do that?’ said he. So the butler told him all the father ordered him; and the young man said then: ‘Do not shoot me, but save me. And it is what you will do,’ he said. ‘Go into the wood till you meet with a woodcock, and shoot it, and take the heart out of it, for that is most like the heart of a man. And bring the woodcock’s heart to my father’s house,’ he said, ‘and throw it there to the dogs at the door.’ So the butler did that, and spared him, and took its heart and threw it to the dogs at the door. It was a good while after that, the beautiful young lady came to the King’s doorway in a coach and four, and she stopped at the door. ‘Send out my husband to me here,’ she said. So the eldest son came out to her. ‘Was it you came to the garden for the apples?’ says she. ‘It was,’ says he. ‘What things did you take notice of in the cottage where I was?’ says she. So he began telling of this thing and that thing that never was in it at all. And when she heard that she gave him a clout that knocked his head as solid as any stone in the wall. Then the second son came out, and she asked him the same question, and he told the same lies, and she gave him another clout that left his head as solid as any stone in the wall. When the King heard all that, he knew they had deceived him, and that it was the youngest son had got the apples for his cure, and he began to cry after him and to lament that he was not living to come back again. ‘Would you like to know he is living yet?’ says the butler. ‘I would sooner hear it than any word that ever I heard,’ says the King. ‘Well, he is living yet, and is in the wood,’ says the butler. When the young lady heard that, she bade the butler to bring her where he was, and they went together to the wood, and there they found him where he had been living on the fruits of the trees through the most of the year. So when the young lady saw him, she said: ‘Was it you came to the house where I was in the garden?’ ‘It was,’ says he. ‘What things did you take notice of in it?’ ‘Here they are,’ says he. And he put his hand in his pocket, and brought out the gold rings and the golden garters and the other signs he had brought away. So she knew then he was the right one that was there, and she married him, and they lived happy ever after, and there was great rejoicing in the King of Ireland’s house. KING SOLOMON