edged it was
formerly his own, for what would be the use of denying it?
"Well," rejoined the guide, "the apparent seal which made away with it is
my father, who has lain dangerously ill ever since, and no means can stay
his fleeting breath without your aid. I have been obliged to resort to
the artifice I have practised to bring you hither, and I trust that my
filial duty to my father will readily excuse me."
Having said this, he led into another apartment the trembling
seal-killer, who expected every minute to be punished for his own ill-
treatment of the father. There he found the identical seal with which he
had had the encounter in the morning, suffering most grievously from a
tremendous cut in its hind-quarter. The seal-killer was then desired,
with his hand, to cicatrise the wound, upon doing which it immediately
healed, and the seal arose from its bed in perfect health. Upon this the
scene changed from mourning to rejoicing--all was mirth and glee. Very
different, however, were the feelings of the unfortunate seal-catcher,
who expected no doubt to be metamorphosed into a seal for the remainder
of his life. However, his late guide accosting him, said--
"Now, sir, you are at liberty to return to your wife and family, to whom
I am about to conduct you; but it is on this express condition, to which
you must bind yourself by a solemn oath, viz. that you will never maim or
kill a seal in all your lifetime hereafter."
To this condition, hard as it was, he joyfully acceded; and the oath
being administered in all due form, he bade his new acquaintance most
heartily and sincerely a long farewell. Taking hold of his guide, they
issued from the place and swam up, till they regained the surface of the
sea, and, landing at the said stupendous pinnacle, they found their
former steed ready for a second canter. The guide breathed upon the
fisher, and they became like men. They mounted their horse, and fleet as
had been their course towards the precipice, their return from it was
doubly swift; and the honest seal-killer was laid down at his own door-
cheek, where his guide made him such a present as would have almost
reconciled him to another similar expedition, such as rendered his loss
of profession, in so far as regarded the seals, a far less intolerable
hardship than he had at first considered it.
THE FAIRIES OF MERLIN'S CRAIG.
Early in the seventeenth century, John Smith, a barn-man at a farm, was
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