ne."
And the wine was brought, and he sang the "Foggy Dew," and the dwarf
said it was the sweetest song he had ever heard, and that the
fairyman's voice would coax the birds off the bushes.
"You asked me who I am?" said the fairy.
"I did," said the dwarf.
"And I asked you who is yourself?"
"You did," said the dwarf.
"And who are you, then?"
"Well, to tell the truth, I don't know," said the dwarf, and he
blushed like a rose.
"Well, tell me what you know about yourself."
"I remember nothing at all," said the dwarf, "before the day I found
myself going along with a crowd of all sorts of people to the great
fair of the Liffey. We had to pass by the king's palace on our way,
and as we were passing the king sent for a band of jugglers to come
and show their tricks before him. I followed the jugglers to look on,
and when the play was over the king called me to him, and asked me who
I was and where I came from. I was dumb then, and couldn't answer; but
even if I could speak I could not tell him what he wanted to know, for
I remember nothing of myself before that day. Then the king asked the
jugglers, but they knew nothing about me, and no one knew anything,
and then the king said he would take me into his service; and the only
work I have to do is to go once a month with a bag of corn to the hut
in the lonely moor."
"And there you fell in love with the little princess," said the fairy,
winking at the dwarf.
The poor dwarf blushed twice as much as he had done before.
"You need not blush," said the fairy; "it is a good man's case. And
now tell me, truly, do you love the princess, and what would you give
to free her from the spell of enchantment that is over her?"
"I would give my life," said the dwarf.
"Well, then, listen to me," said the fairy. "The Princess Finola was
banished to the lonely moor by the king, your master. He killed her
father, who was the rightful king, and would have killed Finola, only
he was told by an old sorceress that if he killed her he would die
himself on the same day, and she advised him to banish her to the
lonely moor, and she said she would fling a spell of enchantment over
it, and that until the spell was broken Finola could not leave the
moor. And the sorceress also promised that she would send an old woman
to watch over the princess by night and by day, so that no harm should
come to her; but she told the king that he himself should select a
messenger to take food
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