.

Cock-alu and Hen-alie sat on the perch above the bean-straw. It was four
o'clock in the morning, and Cock-alu clapped his wings and crowed; then,
turning to Hen-alie, he said: "Hen-alie, my little wife, I love you
better than all the world, you know I do. I always told you so! I will
do anything for you; I'll go round the world for you, I'll travel as far
as the sun for you! You know I would! Tell me, what shall I do for you?"

"Crow!" said Hen-alie.

"Oh, that is such a little thing!" said Cock-alu, and crowed with all
his might. He crowed so loud that he woke the farmer's wife, and the dog
and the cat, and all the pigeons and horses in the stable, and the cow
in the stall. He crowed so loud that all the neighbors' cocks heard him
and answered him, and they woke all their people; and thus Cock-alu woke
the whole parish.

"I've done it rarely this morning!" said Cock-alu; "I told you I would
do anything to please you!"

The next morning, at breakfast, as Hen-alie was picking beans out of the
bean-straw, one stuck in her throat; and she was soon so ill that she
was just ready to die.

"Oh, Cock-alu," said she, calling to him in the yard, where he stood
clapping his wings in the sunshine, "run and fetch me a drop of water
from the silver-spring in the Beech-wood! Fetch me a drop quickly, while
the dew is in it; for that is the true remedy."

But Cock-alu was so busy crowing against a neighbor that he took no
notice.

"Oh, Cock-alu, do run and fetch me the water from the silver-spring, or
I shall die; for the bean sticks in my throat, and nothing but water
with dew in it can cure me! Oh, Cock-alu, dear, run quickly!"

Cock-alu heard her this time, and set off, crowing as he went. He had
not gone far before he met the snail.

"Where are you going, snails?" says he.

"I'm going to the cow-cabbage," says the snail; "and what urgent
business may it be that takes you out thus early, Cock-alu?" says the
snail.

"I'm going to the silver-spring in the Beech-wood, to fetch a drop of
water for my wife, Hen-alie, who has got a bean in her throat," says
Cock-alu.

"Oh," says the snail, "run along quickly, and get the water while the
dew is in it; for nothing else will get a bean out of the throat. Don't
stop by the way, for the bull is coming down to the silver-spring to
drink, and he'll trouble the water. Gather up my silver-trail, however,
and give it to Hen-alie with my love, and I hope she'll soon be better!"