the
happiest of all these happy people were the two Princesses.

_Billy Beg and the Bull_

Once upon a time when pigs were swine, there was a King and Queen, and
they had one son, Billy, and the Queen gave Billy a bull that he was
very fond of, and it was just as fond of him. After some time the
Queen died, and she put it as her last request on the King that he
would never part Billy and the bull, and the King promised that come
what might, come what may, he would not. After the Queen died the King
married again, and the new Queen didn't take to Billy Beg, and no more
did she like the bull, seeing himself and Billy so _thick_. But she
couldn't get the King on no account to part Billy and the Bull, so she
consulted with a hen-wife what they could do as regards separating
Billy and the bull. "What will you give me," says the hen-wife, "and
I'll very soon part them?" "Whatever you ask," says the Queen. "Well
and good then," says the hen-wife; "you are to take to your bed,
making pretend that you are bad with a complaint, and I'll do the rest
of it." And, well and good, to her bed she took, and none of the
doctors could do anything for her, or make out what was her complaint.
So the Queen asked for the hen-wife to be sent for. And sent for she
was, and when she came in and examined the Queen, she said there was
one thing, and only one, could cure her. The King asked what was that,
and the hen-wife said it was three mouthfuls of the blood of Billy
Beg's bull. But the King wouldn't on no account hear of this, and the
next day the Queen was worse, and the third day she was worse still,
and told the King she was dying, and he'd have her death on his head.
So, sooner nor this, the King had to consent to Billy Beg's bull being
killed. When Billy heard this he got very down in the heart entirely,
and he went doitherin' about, and the bull saw him, and asked him
what was wrong with him that he was so mournful; so Billy told the
bull what was wrong with him, and the bull told him to never mind, but
keep up his heart, the Queen would never taste a drop of his blood.
The next day, then, the bull was to be killed, and the Queen got up
and went out to have the delight of seeing his death. When the bull
was led up to be killed, says he to Billy, "Jump up on my back till we
see what kind of a horseman you are." Up Billy jumped on his back, and
with that the bull leapt nine mile high, nine mile deep, and nine mile
broad, and came