the prince. "Go
to the palace, and ask for a quarter of a pound of gold, a quarter of a
pound of silver, and a quarter of a pound of copper. Get one crown for a
pattern, and my head for a pledge, and I'll give you out the very things
that are wanted in the morning." "Ubbabow," says the smith, "are you in
earnest?" "Faith, I am so," says he. "Go! Worse than lose you can't."

To make a long story short, the smith got the quarter of a pound of
gold, and the quarter of a pound of silver, and the quarter of a pound
of copper, and gave them and the pattern crown to the prince. He shut
the forge door at nightfall, and the neighbours all gathered in the
bawn, and they heard him hammering, hammering, hammering, from that to
daybreak, and every now and then he'd pitch out through the window bits
of gold, silver, or copper; and the idlers scrambled for them, and
cursed one another, and prayed for the good luck of the workman.

Well, just as the sun was thinking to rise he opened the door and
brought the three crowns he got from his true love, and such shouting
and huzzaing as there was! The smith asked him to go along with him to
the palace, but he refused; so off set the smith, and the whole townland
with him; and wasn't the King rejoiced when he saw the crowns! "Well,"
says he to the smith, "you're a married man, and what's to be done?"
"Faith, your majesty, I didn't make them crowns at all; it was a big
shuler (vagrant) of a fellow that took employment with me yesterday."
"Well, daughter, will you marry the fellow that made these crowns?" "Let
me see them first, father." So when she examined them she knew them
right well, and guessed it was her true love that had sent them. "I will
marry the man that these crowns came from," says she.

"Well," said the King to the eldest of the two princes, "go up to the
smith's forge, take my best coach, and bring home the bridegroom." He
was very unwilling to do this, he was so proud, but he did not wish to
refuse. When he came to the forge he saw the prince standing at the
door, and beckoned him over to the coach. "Are you the fellow," says he,
"that made them crowns?" "Yes," says the other. "Then," says he, "maybe
you'd give yourself a brushing, and get into that coach; the King wants
to see you. I pity the princess." The young prince got into the
carriage, and while they were on the way he opened the snuff-box, and
out walked _Seven Inches_, and stood on his thigh. "Well," says he,
"wha