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Ferrar, William J.

"More English Fairy Tales"

I should like to know
how my two brothers were when you left them, and what they said to you
about me."
[Illustration: The Castle of Melvales
Swan Swan,
Carry me over,
In the name of the Griffin of Greenwood.]
"Well, to tell the truth, before I left London my father was sick, and
said I was to come here to look for the golden apples, for they were the
only things that would do him good; and when I came to your youngest
brother, he told me many things I had to do before I came here. And I
thought once that your youngest brother put me in the wrong bed, when he
put all those snakes to bite me all night long, until your second
brother told me 'So it was to be,' and said, 'It is the same here,' but
said you had none in your beds."
"Well, let's go to bed. You need not fear. There are no snakes here."
The young man went to bed, and had a good night's rest, and got up the
next morning as fresh as newly caught trout. Breakfast being over, out
comes the other horse, and, while saddling and fettling, the old man
began to laugh, and told the young gentleman that if he saw a pretty
young lady, not to stay with her too long, because she might waken, and
then he would have to stay with her or to be turned into one of those
unearthly monsters, like those he would have to pass by going into the
castle.


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