The Brown Fairy Book, part 7 · page 21 2101Would not the good spirits tell him?102Ah, of course he knew; why had he not thought of it at first and spared himself all that fatigue?103And the next instant a humming bird, dressed in green and blue, flashed past the woman and entered the house.104The witch came panting up, furious at having lost the race which she felt certain of winning; and Ball-Carrier, who had by this time changed back into his own shape, struck her on the head and killed her.105For a long while Ball-Carrier was content to stay quietly at home with his wife and children, for he was tired of adventures, and only did enough hunting to supply the house with food.106But one day he happened to eat some poisonous berries that he had found in the forest, and grew so ill that he felt he was going to die.107“When I am dead do not bury me in the earth,” he said, “but put me over there, among that clump of trees.”108So his wife and her three children watched by him as long as he was alive, and after he was dead they took him up and laid the body on a platform of stakes which they had prepared in the grove.109And as they returned weeping to the hut they caught a glimpse of the ball rolling away down the path back to the old grandmother.110One of the sons sprang forward to stop it, for Ball-Carrier had often told them the tale of how it had helped him to cross the river, but it was too quick for him, and they had to content themselves with the war club and bow and arrows, which were put carefully away.1 2← previousThe Brown Fairy Book, part 6next →The Brown Fairy Book, part 8↑ back to The Brown Fairy BookThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/7/page/2/