THE SMITH AND THE FAIRIES
From Scotland
Yearsago there lived in Scotland an honest, hard-working smith. He had only one child, a boy, fourteen years of age, cheerful, strong, and healthy.
Suddenly the boy fell ill. He took to his bed, and moped away whole days. No one could tell what was the matter with him. Although he had a tremendous appetite, he wasted away, getting thin, yellow, and old.
At last one morning, while the smith was standing idly at his forge, with no heart for work, he was surprised to see a Wise-man, who lived at some distance, enter his shop. The smith hastened to tell him about his son, and to ask his advice.
The Wise-man listened gravely, then said: “The boy has been carried away by the Little People, and they have left a Changeling in his place.”
“Alas! And what am I to do?” asked the smith. “How am I ever to see my own son again?”
“I will tell you how,” answered the Wise-man. “But first, to make sure that it is not your ownson you have, gather together all the egg-shells you can get. Go into the room where the boy is, and spread them out carefully before him. Then pour water in them, and carry them carefully in your hands, two by two. Carry them as though they were very heavy, and arrange them around the fireplace.”
The smith, accordingly, collected as many egg-shells as he could find. He went into the room, and did as the Wise-man had said.
He had not been long at work, before there came from the bed where the boy lay, a great shout of laughter, and the boy cried out:—
“I am now eight hundred years old, and I have never seen the like of that before!”
The smith hurried back, and told this to the Wise-man.
“Did I not assure you,” said the Wise-man, “that it is not your son whom you have? Your son is in a Fairy Mound not far from here. Get rid as soon as possible of this Changeling, and I think I may promise you your son again.
“You must light a very great and bright fire before the bed on which this stranger is lying. He will ask you why you are doing so. Answer him at once: ‘You shall see presently when I lay you upon it.’ If you do this, the Changeling will become frightened and fly through the roof.”
The smith again followed the Wise-man’s advice;kindled a blazing fire, and answered as he had been told to do. And, just as he was going to seize the Changeling and fling him on the fire, the thing gave an awful yell, and sprang through the roof.
The smith, overjoyed, returned to the Wise-man, and told this to him.
“On Midsummer Night,” said the Wise-man, “the Fairy Mound, where your boy is kept, will open. You must provide yourself with a dirk and a crowing cock. Go to the Mound. You will hear singing and dancing and much merriment going on. At twelve o’clock a door in the Mound will open. Advance boldly. Enter this door, but first stick the dirk in the ground before it, to prevent the Mound from closing. You will find yourself in a spacious apartment, beautifully clean; and there working at a forge, you will see your son. The Fairies will then question you, and you must answer that you have come for your son, and will not go without him. Do this, and see what happens!”
Midsummer Night came, and the smith provided himself with a dirk and a crowing cock. He went to the Fairy Mound, and all happened as the Wise-man had said.
The Fairies came crowding around him, buzzing and pinching his legs; and when he said that he had come for his son, and would not go awaywithout him, they all gave a loud laugh. At the same minute the cock, that was dozing in the smith’s arms, woke up. It leaped to his shoulder, and, clapping its wings, crowed loud and long.
At that the Fairies were furious. They seized the smith and his son and threw them out of the Mound, and pulled up the dirk and flung it after them. And in an instant all was dark.
For a year and a day the boy never spoke, nor would he do a turn of work. At last one morning as he was watching his father finish a sword, he exclaimed:—
“That’s not the way to do it!”
And taking the tools from his father’s hands, he set to work, and soon fashioned a glittering sharp sword, the like of which had never been seen before.
From that day on, the boy helped his father, and showed him how to make Fairy swords, and in a few years they both became rich and famous. And they always lived together contentedly and happily.