te garraun saw the tailor sitting down on the ground,
he said, "That's the position he had when he made the hole for me, that
I couldn't come up out of, when I went down into it. I'll go no nearer
to him."

"No!" said the fox, "but that's the way he was when he was making the
thing for me, and I'll go no nearer to him."

"No!" says the lion, "but that's the very way he had, when he was
making the plough that I was caught in. I'll go no nearer to him."

They all went from him then and returned. The tailor and his wife came
home to Galway.

THE CASTLE OF FORTUNE[1]

[1] Adapted from the German of Der Faule und der Fleissige by Robert
Reinick.

One lovely summer morning, just as the sun rose, two travelers started
on a journey. They were both strong young men, but one was a lazy
fellow and the other was a worker.

As the first sunbeams came over the hills, they shone on a great castle
standing on the heights, as far away as the eye could see. It was a
wonderful and beautiful castle, all glistening towers that gleamed like
marble, and glancing windows that shone like crystal. The two young
men looked at it eagerly, and longed to go nearer.

Suddenly, out of the distance, something like a great butterfly, of
white and gold, swept toward them. And when it came nearer, they saw
that it was a most beautiful lady, robed in floating garments as fine
as cobwebs and wearing on her head a crown so bright that no one could
tell whether it was of diamonds or of dew. She stood, light as air, on
a great, shining, golden ball, which rolled along with her, swifter
than the wind. As she passed the travelers, she turned her face to
them and smiled.

"Follow me!" she said.

The lazy man sat down in the grass with a discontented sigh. "She has
an easy time of it!" he said.

But the industrious man ran after the lovely lady and caught the hem of
her floating robe in his grasp. "Who are you, and whither are you
going?" he asked.

"I am the Fairy of Fortune," the beautiful lady said, "and that is my
castle. You may reach it to-day, if you will; there is time, if you
waste none. If you reach it before the last stroke of midnight, I will
receive you there, and will be your friend. But if you come one second
after midnight, it will be too late."

When she had said this, her robe slipped from the traveler's hand and
she was gone.

The industrious man hurried back to his friend, and told him what the
fairy had sa