For a little while Gille Mairtean let the giant
play with him in this manner; then he turned in the giant's hand, and
cut through the Five Necks, so that the Five Heads rolled on the ground.
Afterwards he went back to Ian Direach and said to him:

'Saddle the colt with the golden saddle, and bridle her with the silver
bridle, and sling the basket with the falcon over your shoulders, and
hold the White Sword of Light with its back against your nose. Then
mount the colt, and let the princess mount behind you, and ride thus to
your father's palace. But see that the back of the sword is ever against
your nose, else when your stepmother beholds you, she will change you
into a dry faggot. If, however, you do as I bid you, she will become
herself a bundle of sticks.'

Ian Direach hearkened to the words of Gille Mairtean, and his stepmother
fell as a bundle of sticks before him; and he set fire to her, and was
free from her spells for ever. After that he married the princess, who
was the best wife in all the islands of the West. Henceforth he was safe
from harm, for had he not the bay colt who could leave one wind behind
her and catch the other wind, and the blue falcon to bring him game to
eat, and the White Sword of Light to pierce through his foes?

And Ian Direach knew that all this he owed to Gille Mairtean the fox,
and he made a compact with him that he might choose any beast out of his
herds, whenever hunger seized him, and that henceforth no arrow should
be let fly at him or at any of his race. But Gille Mairtean the fox
would take no reward for the help he had given to Ian Direach, only his
friendship. Thus all things prospered with Ian Direach till he died.

The Ugly Duckling

[From Tales of the West Highlands.]

It was summer in the land of Denmark, and though for most of the year
the country looks flat and ugly, it was beautiful now. The wheat was
yellow, the oats were green, the hay was dry and delicious to roll in,
and from the old ruined house which nobody lived in, down to the edge of
the canal, was a forest of great burdocks, so tall that a whole family
of children might have dwelt in them and never have been found out.

It was under these burdocks that a duck had built herself a warm nest,
and was not sitting all day on six pretty eggs. Five of them were white,
but the sixth, which was larger than the others, was of an ugly grey
colour. The duck was always puzzled about that egg, and how it came