The Coming of the Unicorn Read Online Free PDF

She never tellt me. Probably if she had have told me about the keys I would have ended up the same as my father searching for them.”
    “Ha!” the king smiled, “you’ll probably be after the reward too.”
    “Well,” said Jack, “it would come in handy!”
    “Oh, but,” he said, “don’t worry, my young man, you’ll be highly rewarded.”
    “But, Our Majesty, will ye do one thing for me? Will you tell me what these keys are for?”
    “Well, Jack, I’ll tell ye. I’ll tell ye part o’ the story, but I can only tell ye the first half; I canna tell ye the second. I had a great friend here belonging to me many, many years ago that lived in the court with me. He was a wise old man. He was a court magician. And he and I used to be the greatest o’ friends. But he had to go away back to his own land, he never mentioned where. And before he left he gave me three silver keys: and these three keys open three gates to a special garden. I used to go and visit that garden whenever I felt the mood taking me. And I lost the keys! Thereafter I could never enter through the gates of that garden.”
    “Well, Our Majesty,” Jack said, “I’m very happy you can go back to your garden.”
    “Jack, you’ve no idea what you’ve done for me. Ye’ve made me a new man!”
    “Oh,” he said, “I did?”
    “I want you to be highly rewarded! You can have the whole privilege o’ the palace. You can have everything you want. But you must make me a promise that you shall not leave for twenty days – till I come back. I’m going on a visit. But I want you to have everything that you require under the sun. Don’t spare anything!” And he called for the head cook and he called for the head footman. He called for the head o’ the guards and he warned them all, and called for the queen, and tellt them, “Jack must have the run o’ the palace – see that he wants for nothing! But,” he says to Jack, “have another drink!” So, he and Jack sat and they had another drink. They cracked away about good things. He was a very pleasant man, the king.
    “Now, Jack,” he says, “a footman will show ye to your room. And I want you to stay there. Make me a promise that you’ll not leave the palace or the district for twenty days till I come home!”So, the king bade goodbye to Jack and he said, “I’ll no be seeing ye in the morning, but remember I’ll see ye as soon as I come back!”
    So, Jack went down to the dining hall and he had a good time to himself. He had plenty to eat, plenty to drink. He had a nice clean-up, a right bath and a nice change o’ clothes. He really enjoyed himself. And the footman showed him to a lovely bed. He lay down on this beautiful silken bed and relaxed. But he hadn’t been in bed for more than an hour when he heard a knock on the door.
    Jack got up, “Who’s there?” he said.
    “Oh, it’s me the queen. I want to talk to you,” she said very sternly.
    Jack opened the door, came out, bowed to Her Majesty. “Your Majesty, what can I do for you?”
    “It’s no what you can do for me,” she said, “it’s what I’m going to do for you !”
    “Your Majesty,” he said, “I have everything I need.”
    “Oh,” she said, “you’ve everything you need, have you? Well, you’re going to get more than you need,” and she came in, shut the door behind her. She said, “You know what you’ve done?”
    “Well,” Jack said, “I’ve done nothing. I’ve nothing to be ashamed of…” Jack thought maybe he had talked rough to some o’ the lassies when he had a wee drink with some o’ the maids in the palace or something. And he tried to think back in his mind what he had done as a mistake, but he couldn’t think on anything he had really done, what he had done to annoy the queen. But he racked his brains and racked his mind – “I must have done something,” he said to himself, “to annoy the queen.”
    But the queen was standing; she’s terrible wicked and wild. There was no