When Finn saw that, he was glad to have so good a servant.  But Conan said to him:  “The Lad of the Skins will destroy ourselves and the whole of the Fianna of Ireland unless you will find some way to rid yourself of him.”  “I never had a good man with me yet, Conan,” said Finn, “but you wanted me to put him away; and how could I put away a man like that?” he said.  “The way to put him away,” said Conan, “is to send him to the King of the Floods to take from him the great cauldron that is never without meat, but that has always enough in it to feed the whole world.  And let him bring that cauldron back here with him to Almhuin,” he said.

So Finn called to the Lad of the Skins, and he said:  “Go from me now to the King of the Floods and get the great cauldron that is never empty from him, and bring it here to me.”  “So long as I am in your service I must do your work,” said the Lad of the Skins.  With that he set out, leaping over the hills and valleys till he came to the shore of the sea.  And then he took up two sticks and put one of them across the other, and a great ship rose out of the two sticks.  The Lad of the Skins went into the ship then, and put up the sails and set out over the sea, and he heard nothing but the whistling of eels in the sea and the calling of gulls in the air till he came to the house of the King of the Floods.  And at that time there were hundreds of ships waiting near the shore; and he left his ship outside them all, and then he stepped from ship to ship till he stood on land.

There was a great feast going on at that time in the king’s house, and the Lad of the Skins went up to the door, but he could get no farther because of the crowd.  So he stood outside the door for a while, and no one looked at him, and he called out at last:  “This is a hospitable house indeed, and these are mannerly ways, not to ask a stranger if there is hunger on him or thirst.”  “That is true,” said the king; “and give the cauldron of plenty now to this stranger,” he said, “till he eats his fill.”

So his people did that, and no sooner did the Lad of the Skins get a hold of the cauldron than he made away to the ship and put it safe into it.  But when he had done that he said:  “There is no use in taking the pot by my swiftness, if I do not take it by my strength.”  And with that he turned and went to land again.  And the whole of the men of the army of the King of the Floods were ready to fight; but if they were, so was the Lad of the Skins, and he went through them and over them all till the whole place was quiet.

He went back to his ship then and raised the sails and set out again for Ireland, and the ship went rushing back to the place where he made it.  And when he came there, he gave a touch of his hand to the ship, and there was nothing left of it but the two sticks he made it from, and they lying on the strand before him, and the cauldron of plenty with them.  And he took up the cauldron on his back, and brought it to Finn, son of Cumhal, at Almhuin.  And Finn gave him his thanks for the work he had done.