The Orange Fairy Book Read Online Free PDF

guessed, and by-and- bye he grew
so tired with watching that he went to sleep himself. Soon after,
Isuro woke up, and he too felt hungry, so he crept softly to the pot
and ate all the meat, while he tied the bones together and hung them in
Gudu's fur. After that he went back to the wood-pile and slept again.
    In the morning the mother of Gudu's betrothed came out to milk her
goats, and on going to the bushes where the largest one seemed
entangled, she found out the trick. She made such lament that the
people of the village came running, and Gudu and Isuro jumped up also,
and pretended to be as surprised and interested as the rest. But they
must have looked guilty after all, for suddenly an old man pointed to
them, and cried:
    'Those are thieves.' And at the sound of his voice the big Gudu
trembled all over.
    'How dare you say such things? I defy you to prove it,' answered Isuro
boldly. And he danced forward, and turned head over heels, and shook
himself before them all.
    'I spoke hastily; you are innocent,' said the old man; 'but now let the
baboon do likewise.' And when Gudu began to jump the goat's bones
rattled and the people cried: 'It is Gudu who is the goat-slayer!' But
Gudu answered:
    'Nay, I did not kill your goat; it was Isuro, and he ate the meat, and
hung the bones round my neck. So it is he who should die!' And the
people looked at each other, for they knew not what to believe. At
length one man said:
    'Let them both die, but they may choose their own deaths.'
    Then Isuro answered:
    'If we must die, put us in the place where the wood is cut, and heap it
up all round us, so that we cannot escape, and set fire to the wood;
and if one is burned and the other is not, then he that is burned is
the goat- slayer.'
    And the people did as Isuro had said. But Isuro knew of a hole under
the wood-pile, and when the fire was kindled he ran into the hole, but
Gudu died there.
    When the fire had burned itself out and only ashes were left where the
wood had been, Isuro came out of his hole, and said to the people:
    'Lo! did I not speak well? He who killed your goat is among those
ashes.'
    (Mashona Story.)

Ian, the Soldier's Son
*
    There dwelt a knight in Grianaig of the land of the West, who had three
daughters, and for goodness and beauty they had not their like in all
the isles. All the people loved them, and loud was the weeping when
one day, as the three maidens sat on the rocks on the edge of the sea,
dipping their feet in the water, there arose a great beast from under
the waves and swept them away beneath the ocean. And none knew whither
they had gone, or how to seek them.
    Now there lived in a town a few miles off a soldier who had three sons,
fine youths and strong, and the best players at shinny in that country.
At Christmastide that year, when families met together and great
feasts were held, Ian, the youngest of the three brothers, said:
    'Let us have a match at shinny on the lawn of the knight of Grianaig,
for his lawn is wider and the grass smoother than ours.'
    But the others answered:
    'Nay, for he is in sorrow, and he will think of the games that we have
played there when his daughters looked on.'
    'Let him be pleased or angry as he will,' said Ian; 'we will drive our
ball on his lawn to-day.'
    And so it was done, and Ian won three games from his brothers. But the
knight looked out of his window, and was wroth; and bade his men bring
the youths before him. When he stood in his hall and beheld them, his
heart was softened somewhat; but his face was angry as he asked:
    'Why did you choose to play shinny in front of my castle when you knew
full well that the remembrance of my daughters would come back to me?
The pain which you have made me suffer you shall suffer also.'
    'Since we have done you wrong,' answered Ian, the youngest, 'build us a
ship, and we will go and seek your daughters. Let them be to windward,
or to leeward, or under the four brown boundaries of the sea, we will
find them before a year and a day