’She went home then; and at first they didn’t know her, where she was so long away; and when the children came down to see her in the kitchen, they didn’t know her.

’But when the man of the house knew she was in it, he went down and gave her a great welcome back to himself and the children again.’

* * * * *

Then another old man said:  ’There was a king that used to make rules and to break rules, and that was very cunning; and he wanted to get a good wife for his son.  So he sent him out one day to look for a girl that he would fancy, and he brought one in.  And the old king showed her a whole lot of gold and of treasures; and he said:  “What would you do if all this was yours?” “I would sit down and do nothing else but enjoy it,” she said.

’So the king said to his son that she wouldn’t suit, and that he should go look for another girl, rich or poor.  So he brought in a poor girl; and the king showed her the treasure, and he said:  “What would you do if all this belonged to you?” And she said:  “Whenever I would take a sovereign out of it, I would try to put back two.”

’So he said she would do, and that the son might marry her.  But the girl said:  “I will be well treated while you are in it; but some day you might be gone, and my husband mightn’t treat me so well.  And make him give me his promise now,” she said, “that if ever he turns me out of the house, I may bring three ass-loads of whatever I myself will choose along with me.”  So he gave her his promise she might do that.

’Then the old king died; and the young one was, like himself, a law-maker and a law-breaker.  And he thought a great deal of his own wisdom, and of the judgments he would give.

’Now, at that time there was a man had a mare that had a foal in a field; and in the field next it there was an old garran; and there was a little stream that made the mering between the two fields.  And the foal took a habit of crossing over the stream to the other field where the garran was; and it got to be so friendly with him, and so fond of him, that at last it was hardly it would come back at all.  And the man the other field belonged to laid a claim to it, where it was always in his ground.

’So the case was brought before the king; and he thought a long time, and at last he said to put the foal in a house that had two doors, one on each side, and to put the garran outside one door and the mare outside the other, and to see which would the foal follow.  And they did that, and the foal followed the garran, and it was given to the owner.

’And the man it was taken from was vexed; and he went to the queen, and he told the injustice that was done to him.  And she bade him to get a fishing-rod, and to go fishing in the river; and when the king would go by, to turn and to be fishing on the dry land.

’So he did that; and when the king was coming by, he turned and began fishing on the dry land.  And the king stopped and asked why was he doing that.  And the answer he gave was:  “I think it no more foolish to be fishing on dry land than to believe that a foal would belong to a garran.”