This settled the three men, and they agreed to tell their master the moment he came out, and get the girl sent about her business.  Now the laundry-maid had sharp ears and had paused behind a door to listen; so when she heard this she knew she must do something to stop it.  So she out with her three feathers and said, “By virtue of the three feathers from over my true love’s heart may there be striving as to who suffered most between the men so that they get into the pond for a ducking.”

Well! no sooner had she said the words than the three men began disputing as to which of them had been served the worst; then James up and hit the stout butler, giving him a black eye, and the fat butler fell upon James and pommelled him hard, while the coachman scrambled from his box and belaboured them both, and the laundry-maid stood by laughing.

So out comes the master, but none of them would listen, and each wanted to be heard, and fought, and shoved, and pommelled away until they shoved each other into the pond, and all got a fine ducking.

Then the master asked the girl what it was all about, and she said: 

“They all wanted to tell a story against me because I won’t marry them, and one said his was the best, and the next said his was the best, so they fell a-quarrelling as to which was the likeliest story to get me into trouble.  But they are well punished, so there is no need to do more.”

Then the master went to his wife and said, “You are right.  That laundry-maid of yours is a very wise girl.”

So the butler and the coachman and James had nothing to do but look sheepish and hold their tongues, and the laundry-maid went on with her duties without further trouble.

Then when the seven years and a day were over, who should drive up to the door in a fine gilded coach but the bird-husband restored to his shape as a handsome young man.  And he carried the laundry-maid off to be his wife again, and her master and mistress were so pleased at her good fortune that they ordered all the other servants to stand on the steps and give her good luck.  So as she passed the butler she put a bag with seventy pounds in it into his hand and said sweetly, “That is to recompense you for shutting the shutters.”

And when she passed the coachman she put a bag with forty pounds into his hand and said, “That is your reward for bringing in the clothes.”  But when she passed the footman she gave him a bag with a hundred pounds in it, and laughed, saying, “That is for the drop of brandy you never brought me!”

So she drove off with her handsome husband, and lived happy ever after.

LAZY JACK

Once upon a time there was a boy whose name was Jack, and he lived with his mother on a common.  They were very poor, and the old woman got her living by spinning, but Jack was so lazy that he would do nothing but bask in the sun in the hot weather, and sit by the corner of the hearth in the winter-time.  So they called him Lazy Jack.  His mother could not get him to do anything for her, and at last told him, one Monday, that if he did not begin to work for his porridge she would turn him out to get his living as he could.