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040 - The Lazy Beauty and Her Aunts · Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty nine of Fairy and Folk Tales of the
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  Speaker 1: Irish Peasantry. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
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  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Noel Badrian Fairy
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  Speaker 1: and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, edited and selected
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  Speaker 1: by W. B. Yates, Section thirty nine, The Lazy Beauty
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  Speaker 1: and her Aunt's Patrick Kennedy's Fireside Stories of Ireland. There
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  Speaker 1: was once a poor widow woman who had a daughter
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  Speaker 1: that was as handsome as the day and as lazy
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  Speaker 1: as a pig. Saving your presence, the poor mother was
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  Speaker 1: the most industrious person in the townland, and was a
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  Speaker 1: particularly good hand at the spinning wheel. It was the
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  Speaker 1: wish of her heart that her daughter should be as
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  Speaker 1: handy as herself. But she'd get up late, eat a
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  Speaker 1: breakfast before she'd finish her prayers, and then go about dawdling,
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  Speaker 1: and anything she handled seemed to be burning her fingers.
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  Speaker 1: She drawled her words as if it was a great
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  Speaker 1: trouble to her to speak, or as if her tongue
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  Speaker 1: was as lazy as her body. Many a heart scowled.
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  Speaker 1: Her poor mother got with her, and still she was
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  Speaker 1: only improving like dead fowl in August. Well, one morning
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  Speaker 1: that things were as bad as they could be, and
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  Speaker 1: the poor woman was giving tongue at the rate of
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  Speaker 1: a mill clapper who should be riding by. But the
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  Speaker 1: king's son, Oh, dear, oh dear, good woman, said he.
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  Speaker 1: You must have a very bad child to make your
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  Speaker 1: scold so terribly sure. It can't be this handsome girl
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  Speaker 1: that vexed you. Oh please, your majesty, not at all,
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  Speaker 1: says the old dissembler. I was only checking her for
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  Speaker 1: working herself too much. Would your majesty believe it? She
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  Speaker 1: spins three pounds of flax in a day, weaves it
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  Speaker 1: into linen the next, and makes it all into shirts
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  Speaker 1: the day after, My gracious, says the prince. She's the
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  Speaker 1: very lady that will just fill my mother's eye, and
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  Speaker 1: herself's the greatest spinner in the kingdom. Will you put
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  Speaker 1: on your daughter's bonnet and cloak, if you please, ma'am,
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  Speaker 1: and set her behind me. Why my mother will be
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  Speaker 1: so delighted with her that perhaps she'll make her her
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  Speaker 1: daughter in law in a week. That is, if the
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  Speaker 1: young woman herself is agreeable well. Between the confusion and
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  Speaker 1: the joy and the fear of being found out, the
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  Speaker 1: women didn't know what to do, and before they could
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  Speaker 1: make up their minds, young Auntie Anastasia was set behind
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  Speaker 1: the prince and away he and his attendants went, and
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  Speaker 1: a good heavy purse was left behind with the mother.
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  Speaker 1: She pullillude a long time after all was gone, in
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  Speaker 1: dread of something bad happening to the poor girl. The
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  Speaker 1: Prince couldn't judge of the girl's breeding or wit from
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  Speaker 1: the few answers he pulled out of her. The Queen
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  Speaker 1: was struck in a heap when she saw a young
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  Speaker 1: country girl sitting behind her son, But when she saw
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  Speaker 1: her handsome face and heard all she could do, she
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  Speaker 1: didn't think she could make too much of her. The
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  Speaker 1: Prince took an opportunity of whispering her that if she
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  Speaker 1: didn't object to be his wife, she must strive to
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  Speaker 1: please his mother. Well. The evening went by, and the
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  Speaker 1: Prince and Auntie were getting fonder and fonder of one another,
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  Speaker 1: but the thought of the spinning used to send the
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  Speaker 1: cold to her heart every moment. When bedtime came, the
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  Speaker 1: the old queen went along with her to a beautiful bedroom,
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  Speaker 1: and when she was bidding her good night, she pointed
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  Speaker 1: to a heap of fine flax and said, you may
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  Speaker 1: begin as soon as you like to morrow morning, and
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  Speaker 1: i'll expect to see these three pounds in a nice
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  Speaker 1: thread the morning after. Little did the poor girl sleep
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  Speaker 1: that night. She kept crying and lamenting that she didn't
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  Speaker 1: mind her mother's advice better. When she was left alone
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  Speaker 1: next morning, she began with a heavy heart, and though
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  Speaker 1: she had a nice mahogany wheel and the finest flax
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  Speaker 1: you ever saw, the thread was breaking every moment. One
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  Speaker 1: while it was as fine as a cobweb, and the
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  Speaker 1: next as coarse as a little boy's whipcord. At last,
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  Speaker 1: she pushed a chair back, let her hands fall in
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  Speaker 1: her lap, and burst out a crying. A small old
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  Speaker 1: woman with surprising big feet appeared before her at the
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  Speaker 1: same moment and said, what ails you, handsome Colleen? And
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  Speaker 1: haven't I all that flax to spin before to morrow morning?
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  Speaker 1: And I'll never be able to have even five yards
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  Speaker 1: of fine thread of it put together? And would you
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  Speaker 1: think bad to ask poor collach cushmore, old woman bigfoot
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  Speaker 1: to your wedding with the young prince, if you promise
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  Speaker 1: me that all your three pounds will be made into
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  Speaker 1: the finest of thread while you're taking your sleep to night,
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  Speaker 1: indeed you must be there and welcome, and I'll honor
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  Speaker 1: you all the days of your life. Very well, stay
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  Speaker 1: in your room till tea time, and tell the Queen
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  Speaker 1: she may come in for her thread as early as
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  Speaker 1: she likes. To morrow morning. It was all as she said,
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  Speaker 1: and the thread was finer and evener than the gut
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  Speaker 1: you see with fly fishers. My brave girl you were,
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  Speaker 1: says the Queen. I'll get my own mahogany loom brought
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  Speaker 1: into you, and you needn't do anything more to day,
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  Speaker 1: work and rest, work and rest is my motto. To
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  Speaker 1: morrow you'll weave all this thread, and who knows what
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  Speaker 1: may happen. The poor girl was more frightened this time
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  Speaker 1: than the last, and she was so afraid to lose
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  Speaker 1: the prince. She didn't even know how to put the
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  Speaker 1: warp in the gears, nor how to use the shuttle.
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  Speaker 1: And she was sitting in the greatest grief when a
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  Speaker 1: little woman who was mighty well shouldered about the hips
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  Speaker 1: all at once appeared to her told her her name
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  Speaker 1: was Colac Cromenmore, and made the same bargain with her
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  Speaker 1: as Colac Gushmore. Great was the Queen's pleasure when she
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  Speaker 1: found early in the morning a web as fine and
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  Speaker 1: white as the finest paper you ever saw. The darling
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  Speaker 1: you were, says she, take your ease with the ladies
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  Speaker 1: and gentlemen to day, and if you have all this
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  Speaker 1: made into nice shirts to morrow, you may present one
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  Speaker 1: of them to my son and be married to him
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  Speaker 1: out of hand. Oh, wouldn't you pity poor Auntie? The
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  Speaker 1: next day she was now so near the prince, and
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  Speaker 1: maybe would be soon so far from him. But she
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  Speaker 1: waited as patiently as she could, with scissors, needle and
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  Speaker 1: thread in hand, till a minute afternoon. Then she was
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  Speaker 1: rejoiced to see the third old woman appear. She had
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  Speaker 1: a big red nose, and informed Auntie that people called
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  Speaker 1: her shron Morur. On that account, she was up to
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  Speaker 1: her as good as the others. For a dozen fine
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  Speaker 1: shirts were lying on the table when the Queen paid
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  Speaker 1: her an early visit. Now there was nothing talked of
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  Speaker 1: but the wedding, and I needn't tell you it was grand.
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  Speaker 1: The poor mother was there along with the rest, and
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  Speaker 1: at the dinner the old queen could talk of nothing
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  Speaker 1: but the lovely shirts and how happy herself and the
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  Speaker 1: bride would be after the honeymoon, spinning and weaving and
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  Speaker 1: sewing shirts and shifts without end. The bridegroom didn't like
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  Speaker 1: the discourse, and the bride liked it less, and he
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  Speaker 1: was going to say something when the footman came up
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  Speaker 1: to the head of the table and said, to the bride,
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  Speaker 1: your ladyship's aunt, Cola Cushmore, bade me ask you might
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  Speaker 1: she come in. The bride blushed and wished she was
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  Speaker 1: seven miles under the floor, But well became the Prince.
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  Speaker 1: Tell missus Cushmore said, he that any relation of my
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  Speaker 1: brides will be always heartily welcome wherever she and I are.
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  Speaker 1: In came the woman with the big foot and got
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  Speaker 1: a seat near the prince. The old Queen didn't like
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  Speaker 1: it much, and after a few words, she asked, rather spitefully,
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  Speaker 1: dear ma'am, what's the reason your foot is so big?
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  Speaker 1: Musha faith, your majesty, I was standing almost all my
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  Speaker 1: life at the spinning wheel, and that's the reason I
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  Speaker 1: declare to you, my darling, said the Prince, I'll never
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  Speaker 1: allow you to spend one hour at the same spinning wheel.
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  Speaker 1: The same footman said again, your ladyship's aunt, Colet Crommenmore,
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  Speaker 1: wishes to come in, if the genteels and yourself have
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  Speaker 1: no objection. Very cheruse displeased was princess Ante. But the
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  Speaker 1: Prince sent her welcome, and she took her seat and
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  Speaker 1: drank Health's a peace the company. May I ask, ma'am,
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  Speaker 1: says the old queen, why you're so wide half way
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  Speaker 1: between the head and the feet that your majesty is
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  Speaker 1: owing to sitting all my life at the loom by
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  Speaker 1: my scepter, says the Prince. My wife shall never sit
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  Speaker 1: there an hour. The footmen again came up. Your ladyship's aunt,
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  Speaker 1: Colac Schon Mooruer is asking leave to come into the banquet,
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  Speaker 1: more blushing on the bride's face. But the bridegroom spoke
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  Speaker 1: out cordially, tell missus schron Mooruer, she's doing us an honor.
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  Speaker 1: In came the old woman, and great respect. She got
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  Speaker 1: near the top o the table, but the people down
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  Speaker 1: low put up their tumblers and glasses to their noses
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  Speaker 1: to hide the grins ma'am, says the old queen. Will
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  Speaker 1: you tell us, if you please, why your nose is
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  Speaker 1: so big and red? Troth, your majesty. My head was
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  Speaker 1: bent down over the stitching. All my life and all
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  Speaker 1: the blood in my body ran into my nose, my darling,
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  Speaker 1: said the Prince to Auntie. If ever I see a
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  Speaker 1: needle in your hand, I'll run a hundred miles from you.
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  Speaker 1: And in troth, girls and boys. Though it's a diverting story,
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  Speaker 1: I don't think the moral is good. And if any
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  Speaker 1: of you thakines go about imitating Auntie in her laziness,
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  Speaker 1: you'll find it won't thrive with you as it did
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  Speaker 1: with her. She was beautiful beyond compare, which none of
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  Speaker 1: you are, and she had three powerful fairies to help her. Besides,
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  Speaker 1: there's no fairies now, and no prince or lord to
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  Speaker 1: ride by and catch you idling or working. And maybe,
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  Speaker 1: after all the Prince and herself were not so very
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  Speaker 1: happy when the cares of the world or old age
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  Speaker 1: came on them. Thus was the tale ended by poor
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  Speaker 1: old Shebale Sybylla, father Murphy's housekeeper, in Coolborne, Barony of Bantry.
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  Speaker 1: About half a century since end of section thirty nine