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.
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.
