"

And she, turning her head back as she sped, laughed gaily:

"Never more, gaffer, will I come to the castle in the air!"

So she took the ring to the King, and she and the handsome young prince
were married, and no one ever saw the double-faced giant again.

THE ASS, THE TABLE, AND THE STICK

A lad named Jack was once so unhappy at home through his father's
ill-treatment, that he made up his mind to run away and seek his fortune
in the wide world.

He ran, and he ran, till he could run no longer, and then he ran right
up against a little old woman who was gathering sticks. He was too much
out of breath to beg pardon, but the woman was good-natured, and she
said he seemed to be a likely lad, so she would take him to be her
servant, and would pay him well. He agreed, for he was very hungry, and
she brought him to her house in the wood, where he served her for a
twelvemonths and a day. When the year had passed, she called him to her,
and said she had good wages for him. So she presented him with an ass
out of the stable, and he had but to pull Neddy's ears to make him begin
at once to hee-haw! And when he brayed there dropped from his mouth
silver sixpences, and half-crowns, and golden guineas.

The lad was well pleased with the wage he had received, and away he rode
till he reached an inn. There he ordered the best of everything, and
when the innkeeper refused to serve him without being paid beforehand,
the boy went off to the stable, pulled the ass's ears, and obtained his
pocket full of money. The host had watched all this through a crack in
the door, and when night came on he put an ass of his own for the
precious Neddy belonging to the youth. So Jack, without knowing that any
change had been made, rode away next morning to his father's house.

Now I must tell you that near his home dwelt a poor widow with an only
daughter. The lad and the maiden were fast friends and true-loves. So
when Jack returned he asked his father's leave to marry the girl.

"Never till you have the money to keep her," was the reply.

"I have that, father," said the lad, and going to the ass he pulled its
long ears; well, he pulled, and he pulled, till one of them came off in
his hands; but Neddy, though he hee-hawed and he hee-hawed, let fall no
half-crowns or guineas. Then the father picked up a hayfork and beat his
son out of the house.

I promise you he ran; he ran and ran till he came bang against a door,
and burst it