Part 13 (2/2)

”The King walked and paced about the floor for a while, and kept chattering that there was no harm done, so long as there was breath in him, and a pack of such stuff which had flowed out of Peik's mouth, and then he pulled out the horn and began to blow 'Toot-i-too, Toot-i-too,'

but though he blew and tooted as hard as he could all that day and the next too, he couldn't blow life into them again. Dead they were, and dead they stayed, both the Queen and his daughter, and he was forced to buy graves for them in the churchyard, and to spend money on their funeral ale into the bargain.

”So he must and would go and cut Peik off; but Peik had his spies out, and knew when the King was coming, and then he said to his sister,--

”'Now you must change clothes with me and set off. If you will do that you may have all we have got.'

”Well! she changed clothes with him, and packed up and started off as fast as she could; but Peik sat all alone in his sister's clothes.

”'Where is that Peik?' said the King, as he came in a towering rage through the door.

”'He has run away,' said Peik.

”'Ah! had he been at home,' said the King, 'I'd have slain him on the spot. It's no good sparing the life of such a rogue.'

”'Yes! he knew by his spies that your Majesty was coming, and was going to take his life for his wicked tricks; but he has left me all alone without a morsel of bread or a penny in my purse,' said Peik, who made himself as soft and mealy-mouthed as a young lady.

”'Come along then to the King's Grange, and you shall have enough to live on. There's no good sitting here and starving in this cabin by yourself,' said the King.

”Yes! he was glad to do that; so the King took him with him, and had him taught everything, and treated him as his own daughter, and it was almost as if the King had his three daughters again, for Miss Peik sewed and st.i.tched, and sung and played with the others, and was with them early and late.

”After a time a king's son came to look for a wife.

”'Yes! I have three daughters,' said the King; 'it rests with you which you will have?'

”So he got leave to go up to their bower to make friends with them, and the end was that he liked Miss Peik best, and threw a silk kerchief into her lap as a love token. So they set to work to get ready the bridal feast, and in a little while his kinsfolk came, and the King's men, and they all fell to feasting and drinking on the bridal eve; but as night was falling Miss Peik daren't stay longer, but ran away from the King's Grange, out into the wide world, and the bride was lost; but there was worse behind, for just then both the other princesses felt very queer, and all at once two little princes came travelling into the world, and folk had to break up and go home just as the fun and feasting were highest.

”The King got both wroth and sorrowful, and began to wonder if it wasn't Peik again that had a finger in this pie.

”So he mounted his horse and rode out, for he thought it dull work staying at home; but when he got out among the ploughed fields, there sat Peik on a stone playing on a Jews' harp.

”'What! are you sitting there, Peik?' said the King.

”'Here I sit, sure enough,' said Peik. 'Where else should I sit?”

”'Now you have cheated me foully, time after time,' said the King; 'but now you must come along home with me, and I'll kill you.'

”'Well, well,' said Peik, 'if it can't be helped it can't; I suppose I must go along with you.'

”When they got home to the King's Grange, they got ready a cask which Peik was to be put in, and when it was ready they carted it up to a high fell; there he was to lie three days thinking on all the evil he had done, then they were to roll him down the fell into the firth.

”The third day a rich man pa.s.sed by, but Peik sat inside the cask and sang,--

'To heaven's bliss and Paradise, To heaven's bliss and Paradise.

”'I'd sooner far stay here and not be made an angel.'

”When the man heard that, he asked what he would take to change places with him.

<script>