" Now no sooner had he started than she said: "By virtue of my
three feathers may there be slashing and spilling, and James not be able
to pour the brandy straight nor yet to take his hand from it until
morning."
And so it was. Try as he might James could not get his glass filled, and
there was slashing and spilling, and right on it all, down came the
master to know what it meant!
So James told him he could not make it out, but he could not get the
drop of brandy the laundry-maid had asked for, and his hand would shake
and spill everything, and yet come away he could not.
This got him in for a regular scrape, and the master when he got back to
his wife said: "What has come over the men, they were all right until
that laundry-maid of yours came. Something is up now though. They have
all drawn out their pay, and yet they don't leave, and what can it be
anyway?"
But his wife said she could not hear of the laundry-maid being blamed,
for she was the best servant she had and worth all the rest put
together.
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