The Coming of the Unicorn Read Online Free PDF Page A

was home, and Jack made his way to the king’s palace. The first body he met at the palace was a guard.
    And the guard stopped him, “Where do you think you’re going? Where do you think you’re going to?”
    “Well,” Jack says, “I want to see the king.”
    So the guard looked at him. “You,” he said, “want to see the king? What do you want to see the king for?”
    “I’ve got a wee message for him,” Jack said. “I want to speak to him.”
    He says, “You tell me and I’ll tell the king.”
    “No,” says Jack, “I’m no telling you what I’ve got to tell the king.” And it rose a heated argument with them.
    But just by good luck on Jack, who came walking up behindthe guard’s back but the king himself, an aged man, about sixty years of age!
    “What’s going on here,” he said, “guard?”
    “Your Majesty, it’s this rough looking character of a man here who wants an interview with you, the king.”
    “Well,” the king looked at Jack. “He seems a fine specimen o’ a man to me, suppose he’s a bit rough. He’s probably a traveller on the road. He’s one of my subjects I suppose.” The king said, “Where do you come from, young man?”
    “To tell the truth,” Jack said, “Our Majesty,” and he bowed to the king, “I came a long way from here.” Jack told him he came from such-and-such a place, “And I came to see ye. In fact, I brought a present for ye.”
    “Well,” said the king, and the king smiled. “You brought a present for me? This is very good o’ you. Come with me!”
    The guard wasn’t very well pleased. As Jack walked past the guard he looked daggers at Jack, you know, Jack with his rough coat!
    The king walked into his chamber with Jack and he told Jack to sit down. The king sat down.
    “Well, my young man,” he said, “would you care for a drink?”
    “To tell you the truth,” Jack said, “Our Majesty, drink is a thing I could never afford. I’ve never had very much time for it.”
    “Anyway,” he said, “you’ll have a glass of wine with me before you tell me your story.” And the king was very pleasant. So, he called for two beautiful glasses of wine and he and Jack drank the wine together. “Now,” he said, “young man, what have you got for me? What have you come to see me about?”
    Jack rammed his hand down into his coat in below his oxter. From a big long pocket he pulled out the three keys. He held them in front of the king.
    And the king looked. The king’s eyes came out in his head. And the king started to shake; the excitement got the better of him. For a minute he couldn’t speak.
    “Young man,” he said, “do ye know what you’ve got there?”
    “To tell ye the truth, Our Majesty,” he said, “to me they’re three keys.”
    He said, “Where did you get these keys?”
    “Well,” he said, “you, when I was only an infant, were hunting a boar across my father’s land, a wee farm.
    “I remember it well,” said the king.
    He said, “You came for a visit to your country to see some o’ your landowners. I believe ye lost these keys.” And he told the king his name was Jack.
    “Well, Jack, you don’t know what you’ve done for me.”
    Jack said, “I never did anything for you, Our Majesty; they’re your property and my mother advised me—”
    “By the way, how is your mother?” the king said. “I remember a long time ago stopping by her little farm to water the horses and she was a pleasant woman.”
    Jack said, “My father died searching for your keys.”
    “Oh, bad luck,” said the king, “very bad.”
    “He searched,” Jack said, “his entire life for to get your keys. One night in a fog and mist he was lost, he ended up drowned in a ditch.”
    “Oh, I’m very sad,” says the king, “very sad to hear about that. And you, my young man, how did you come by these keys?”
    Jack says, “Me and my mother had a wee bit argument about the farm getting run down. But I didn’t know anything about the keys.