The Lilac Fairy Book, part 28 · page 21 2101‘For a hundred years no man has swept this byre,’ said the giant, ‘but if by nightfall, when I reach home, thou has not cleaned it so that a golden apple can roll through it from end to end, thy blood shall pay for it.’102All day long the youth toiled, but he might as well have tried to empty the ocean.103At length, when he was so tired he could hardly move, the giant’s youngest daughter stood in the doorway.104‘Lay down thy weariness,’ said she, and the king’s son, thinking he could only die once, sank on the floor at her bidding, and fell sound asleep.105When he woke the girl had disappeared, and the byre was so clean that a golden apple could roll from end to end of it.106He jumped up in surprise, and at that moment in came the giant.107‘Hast thou cleaned the byre, king’s son?’ asked he.108‘I have cleaned it,’ answered he.109‘Well, since thou wert so active to-day, to-morrow thou wilt thatch this byre with a feather from every different bird, or else thy blood shall pay for it,’ and he went out.110Before the sun was up, the youth took his bow and his quiver and set off to kill the birds.checked by a teacher111Off to the moor he went, but never a bird was to be seen that day.112At last he got so tired with running to and fro that he gave up heart.1 2← previousThe Lilac Fairy Book, part 27next →The Lilac Fairy Book, part 29↑ back to The Lilac Fairy BookThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/28/page/2/